Tough harvest wrapped up for some P.E.I. farmers but others still working against the weather

P.E.I. farmers had a tough go with the weather this season, with too much rainfall followed by a shortage of trucks, slowing some of the fall harvest. 

The general manager of the P.E.I. Grain Elevators Corporation described the season as "variable". 

"Weather-wise, hot, cold, wet. Quality of grains were all over the place," Neil Campbell said.

"Low bushel weights, really good bushel weights, some toxins, some high toxins. We've had just a variability of everything coming at us this year."

Campbell said the wet weather was also slowing down the corn harvest, with about 20 per cent of the crop still to be harvested as of December 1. 

"Yields seem to be pretty good on the corn from what I'm understanding, and the bins seem to be filling up," Campbell said. 

"The corn is not drying down in the field, maybe because of the type of fall we've had."

That means both farmers and the corporation need to burn more propane to dry out the corn. 

November was a real scary month. I've never harvested soybeans in November before in my life.—Alan Miller, grain and soybean farmer

"We've used our dryers a lot more this year than we did the year before," Campbell said.

That's hurting some farmers financially. 

 "It takes money out of peoples' pockets," he said. 

Campbell said sales of soybeans have been going well, and the corn is just starting to be sold, but he said the quality looks good enough to sell all winter long. 

He said good sales will help, but farmers also started with high costs for fertilizer, seeds and sprays this season.

Truck shortage

Campbell said a shortage of trucks has also been an issue. 

"We have a lot of fall crops that have to be harvested, everything from carrots to corn and potatoes. There's lots of demand for trucks the last two months for sure," Campbell said. 

"They can't run their combines, and they can't empty their tanks. They have to sit and wait for trucks."

Campbell said with the potato harvest over, there should be more trucks available, but he expects the grain elevator to be busy longer than usual.

"It's going to go right till Christmas, trying to get everything dried this year to be wrapped up," Campbell said.

"Normally we're done around the 10th of December. We'll just keep on drying every day, and hope the equipment stays running."

'Scary month'

Alan Miller is grateful to be finished harvesting, after a slow start to the 2023 season, cleaning up damage from post-tropical storm Fiona. 

Miller farms about 160 hectares of grain and soybeans in Elmwood, P.E.I., and is research coordinator for the Atlantic Grains Council.

"November was a real scary month. I've never harvested soybeans in November before in my life," Miller said.

"But I had a lot of really good partners, and we hit a spell where the weather was good for a few days. With two combines running probably about 15 hours, we were all done."

Miller said Fiona is going to have a ripple effect into next season for him as well. 

"I like planting winter wheat after my soybeans, so the soybeans need to be harvested in late September, early October," Miller said. 

This year, he harvested some soybeans too late in the year to plant the wheat crop after. 

"Next year I've got to look at alternative crops to go into the land where it should have been winter wheat."

'Started slowly unraveling'

Miller said he's hearing that it was a fairly good year overall for soybeans across the Island, with some growers having really good yields. 

But the weather in August put a damper on what was looking like an outstanding crop. 

"We didn't have a lot of sun in August, and the beans weren't as big and plump as they should have been," Miller said.

"In July I was looking at my soybeans saying, 'Wow, this is going to be a record crop.' And then things just started slowly unravelling."

In a statement to CBC News, the P.E.I. Agricultural Insurance Corporation said: "The PEI AIC can confirm that there was an increase in grain claims this year over previous years, largely in part due to weather-related events that led to excessive moisture."