Maritime farmers were happy to see rain falling from the sky Wednesday, but they say the wet weather still isn’t enough to help their crops.
“The cobs aren’t filled in like they should be at this point in time,” says Wolfville, N.S. farmer Jim Stirling.
Stirling says of all his crops the corn is suffering most, which is a common concern among many local farmers after a hot, dry summer.
“It's to the point where if I don't get a couple inches or so in the next couple of weeks, it could get quite serious,” says Stirling.
Nearly a month has passed since a significant amount of rain has fallen on the usually fertile lands of Wolfville.
“Hot, dry summer is good for growing as far as light goes and colour on our apples and making the plants grow, but the other thing you have to have is water,” says Stirling.
His family has been managing by irrigating more, but that is costly and affects the farm’s bottom line. Even with today’s rain, there was just barely enough moisture to wet the plants; the ground is still bone dry.
“We're really shy on the water,” says Stirling. “We need a good dousing…our fruit trees are starting to show stress.”
Today’s rain, which was heavier in Halifax, was not quite as welcomed in the city after the harbour beaches were shut down by officials as a precaution.
“This is typical,” says Shaune MacKinlay of the Halifax Regional Municipality. “In fact, this summer we've had fewer closures than we've had the past couple of summers and that's because we've had less rainfall. So it's about heavy downfalls over short periods of time. That means that we can have outfalls into the harbour and into the arm.”
Stirling doesn’t want a downpour either. He wants a slow and steady rainfall.
“It doesn't work very good if it all runs off the top,” says Stirling. “We get two inches in two hours or something like that. We need like an inch a day.”
With files from CTV Atlantic's Kayla Hounsell
