Lambton County farmers are harvesting wheat while the sun shines. "We were going full blast all weekend," Enniskillen Township farmer Kevin Marriott said Monday. "It was the longest days I've ever had." That's unusual for the wheat harvest where, generally, "you have to start late and quit early," he added. "But, it was so darn dry on the weekend but we took probably a record amount of wheat off, acre-wise, in a short time." While the weather has been good for the wheat harvest, yields "are really disappointing," said Marriott, who is Lambton County's director on the board of the Grain Farmers of Ontario. Wheat fields that looked like they might offer 90 to 100 bushels an acre only produced 70 bushels "or so," he said.
The wheat harvest is underway in Sarnia-Lambton.
"Last year was a record-breaking yield on the upside, and this year is a big disappointment." Extremely wet weather in May and June when rainfall was 60% above normal gets the blame. "I guess no plant can be under water as many times as it was," Marriott said. While yields are down, the quality of this year's wheat crop has been extremely high, he said. "It isn't all bad." Lambton farmers planted more than 100,000 acres of wheat this year, or about 10% of Ontario's total crop, Marriott said."Lambton is a pretty big player in the wheat market."While hot, dry conditions in the forecast later this week will help with the remaining wheat harvest, it's not good news for Lambton's other crops.
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