‘Stunned, stunted and doesn’t want to grow’
Melvin Rattai was spending part of a sunny Wednesday doing something he'd rather not heading off to talk to an adjuster about crop insurance.
He also planned to spend some of the day on one of his fields that isn't drowned out too badly one that has good run off because it's sloped towards a creek.
Rattai seeded 1,200 acres this year the family farm seeded 2,000 of canola, wheat and flax. Rain that fell at the end of May started the decline of crops in the province, and the soakings that continue every few days have made the problem far worse.
"(All the crops) are suffering to a certain degree," Rattai said.
"It's stunned, it's stunted and it doesn't want to grow. It's sort of just standing there surviving. The canola is the worst."
Rattai estimates he'll have a 60 per cent loss in canola yield. He said the crop wants "to bolt", meaning it'll throw a few seeds before reaching its full growth potential and then be unable to recover. In a year with a bumper crop, Rattai said he'd average 40 bushels per acre from his canola, but this year he might be looking at yields of 10-15 bushels per acre.
Source: Beausejour Review