Over the summer months, Manitoba Rep for the Canadian Foodgrains Bank, Dale Friesen, has been travelling across the province to connect with each of the 35 or so community project and grow project committees. He says he's seen a variety of crops, but also a variety of growing conditions; from the very lush in areas of the Westman Region, to the very dry in the Interlake Region.
"The way the crops look right now, it is really quite something," he says. "It's pretty hit and miss. I've had some farmers tell me this could be their best crop ever and I've had some farmers say there's not much of a crop this year, or it's quite a bit less than at first expected. And so, it's quite something that all of the province, it's very, very different."
Friesen says the committee for the Grow Project in the Stonewall area, were disappointed with the lack of rain.
"Our field project out of Stonewall was harvested already, a Rock Solid group, and they had peas, and they said that during the course of the entire grow season they've had two inches of rain and a number of those showers came late. And so, two inches of rain for the whole year, the crop still looked good though. But then if you talk with some people around southern Manitoba, let's say Winkler or the Killarney area, for instance, they're saying really, really nice crops. So, it's really all over the map this year."
The rain showers in some areas have been almost daily, while in other areas the ground is certainly more parched.
"I think what a lot of people are noticing is that some of the showers that come through consider to be a little bit more isolated pockets rather than let's say a huge swath of rainfall coming down, but certainly the Westman region is one of the better areas of the province when it comes to the crops. They had more rain."
In his travels, Friesen has made a mental note that for much of the province; north of Hwy 1 has seen less precipitation, whereas south of the TransCanada they've seen more consistent rainfall.
On the contrary, when he was visiting a grow project in the Fort Francis-Emo area in northwestern Ontario, they said they had way too much rain, especially in July. "So, it's just been something where you're hearing one group say not enough rain and another group saying we have plenty of rain."
With harvest just around the corner, some farmers in the southwest are feeling nervous about the daily rains. On the other hand, the bean, corn and sunflower producers are loving it! In addition to this, cattle farmers are very pleased with the regular rains as their dugouts are getting restored and their pastures look lush. This year's hay crop is also fairly healthy but again depending on just where those showers fell over the course of summer. Given the low water table over the past few years, the regular showers have been a welcome sight.
"We have some people who are super happy and then you have some people who are feeling that it's concerning," shares Friesen.
A recent trip to Ag in Motion in Saskatoon, SK brought this diversity of weather patterns more into perspective as to how fortunate we have been here in Manitoba.
"If you talk to farmers there in the southwest part of their province, it was really, really dry. And they said this has been like, year seven-year eight of a drought. And so, you hear those stories and then we hear these other stories of like, man, this field is thick or man, this field looks good!"
With some areas already having begun their harvest, and others waiting for things to dry down a bit, it will be an interesting harvest season to be sure. The last thing any of us need is severe weather of driving rain, damaging hail or pounding wind.
Additional Foodgrains projects include community dinners and concerts and live auction events. Visit the Foodgrains website HERE to learn more!
"But yeah, it's looking pretty good overall and we're keeping our fingers crossed that it would stay that way with no kinds of major storms," adds Friesen. "So, now we're just waiting to get waiting to get some crops off the field. There's been a number of rainfalls that have happened as of late that's slowing that down and so yeah, just hoping that we can get some of these crops off the field!"
Follow Dale Friesen on his travels throughout Manitoba and northwestern Ontario through Facebook HERE!