September’s sunshine ended what has been an exasperating summer for farmers.

Rain was a headache for Tim Livingstone’s Strawberry Hill Farm in Carleton County, N.B. (See Ribs, page 7.) “We’ve had one (harvest) that was barely enough. We’re about two weeks behind. We’d like to be done by mid- to late July. But it’s not going to happen this year,” he said.

“The weather’s not what it used to be. Every year it gets more difficult trying to feed hay,” Philip Burgess, a Shorthorn breeder in Falmouth, N.S., told Atlantic Beef & Sheep. “Nobody in this area has good, dry hay. In June and July there were no three-day stretches of sunshine needed for the hay to dry.”

Falmouth was one of the communities in the path of a historic thunderstorm on July 21. For two days, torrential downpours and non-stop lightning besieged the province. More than 200 millimetres of rain inundated parts of Queens, Lunenburg, Halifax, and Hants counties. The storm deluged areas of Cape Breton with 150 millimetres of rain before it buggered off.

Livestock were lost in its wake along with forage crops, pastures, and infrastructure. On page 24, Matt Jones chronicles nightmarish accounts of the event and steps taken to mitigate its aftermath.

“The soil is saturated,” Boyd Crouse, a Lunenburg County, N.S., Charolais breeder, told Jones in late August. “It just doesn’t have an opportunity to get dry because we get more rain as we go forward here. It just doesn’t allow us to do what we need to do. We’re going to be hard pressed to find winter feed – that’s going to be a real concern.”

Summer’s intermittent rain frustrated P.E.I. farmers. “Hay making in 100 percent humidity conditions was almost impossible, and most producers chose to wrap feed as haylage,” provincial beef development officer Les Halliday said (page 30). “I would anticipate that hay made under those conditions would sweat out extensively, leading to mouldy hay with substantial spore dust, which is a concern for animals and those feeding it, so please use with caution,” he warned. “In some areas of the province, wheat has started to sprout in the head. In other areas, Fusarium has taken hold, resulting in significant mycotoxin contamination of wheat and barley.”

Duncan Fraser, New Brunswick’s red meat specialist, is also very concerned about feed quality. “Beef and sheep, being ruminants, can handle some mouldy feed, but if the mycotoxins are higher than 10 parts per million, the grain should be diluted,” he said. “Toxins in feed can certainly affect how well the animals eat, gain, and reproduce.” (See page 27.)

Both Halliday and Fraser urge farmers to have their grain tested.

Bruce Andrews, vice-president of operations for Atlantic Beef Products Inc. in Albany, P.E.I., echoes that advice in his Market Report on page 18. “Before buying or feeding (grains that contain low levels of mycotoxins), producers should have a discussion and plan with their nutritionist to avoid costly mistakes such as reduced feed intake and (weight) gains, or abortions in bred animals.”

Potential feed problems, storm damage, and overall uncertainty have increased stress and mental health struggles on many farms. It’s essential that farmers look after their mental health. There are programs available in all four provinces that do help, and producers can reach out to the following confidential 24-hour helplines: 1-800-667-5005 in New Brunswick; 1-888-737-4668 in Newfoundland and Labrador; 1-888-429-8167 in Nova Scotia; and 1-800-218-2885 in P.E.I. The PEI Federation of Agriculture’s Farmer Assistance Program number is 902-626-9787, and the Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture Farm Family Support Centre number is 1-844-880-1942.