The Citizen, 2015-06-18, Page 18PAGE 18. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JUNE 18, 2015.
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Intense rain events cause MVCA concerns, statement
The Maitland Valley watershed
has faced significant rain falls over
the past week, which has caused the
Maitland Valley Conservation
Authority to release a Watershed
Condition Statement.
The statement, which is below
flood warnings and watches as far as
direness is concerned, was released
last week and set to be removed on
Monday, however, as Authority
Communications Co-ordinator
Jayne Thompson explained, the
organization decided to extend it.
“We’re watching things very
closely right now,” she said. “The
water statement was supposed to
come off at 4 p.m. [on Monday], but
we extended it to the end of the week
due to rain on Monday morning and
rain in the forecast for the rest of the
week,” she said. “We anticipate lev-
els will be running high, particularly
in the lower Maitland area, as the
water runs through the system. We
will be reviewing the statement and
may lift it at 4 p.m. on Friday.”
The statement came as a result of
an intense amount of rain according
to Thompson.
“Over the past week we’ve had
between 100 and 150 millimetres of
rain across the watershed depending
on where you are,” she said. “Some
areas have received more, some have
received less.”
Thompson pointed to Belgrave
and Blyth as examples of how a very
short distance can result in a large
difference between rainfall.
“Belgrave, over the past 72 hours,
has had 44 millimetres of rain while
Blyth, in the same period, has had 19
millimetres,” she said. “They’re not
far apart distance-wise, but that is a
fairly significant difference.”
She said that the 100 to 150 mil-
limetres puts an lot of pressure on
the river system and amounts to
what is normally about a month and
a half of rain for this time of the year.
As a result, the Authority had to
react to the increased amount of
water in the watershed.
“We did lift boards at all three of
the dams – Brussels, Bluevale and
Gorrie – due to the increased flow,”
she said. “One thing that we did
notice, after the hard rains, was the
rivers were carrying a lot of logs,
branches and other debris.”
Thompson said that using the river
system for recreational purposes is
particularly dangerous right now due
to the debris, especially for those
boating near dams.
“With the high water levels and
the debris, it’s very dangerous to be
canoeing or kayaking so we’re ask-
ing people to stay clear of the dams
until the water level drops,” she said.
“We will have crews out to clean up
the debris at the dams, however they
can’t do it safely now. We need to
wait for the water levels to drop.”
As far as future concerns go,
Thompson said that as long as any
rain in the area is consistently light,
there shouldn’t be any problems.
“The big concern we have right
now are intense rain storms,” she
said. “If we have a significant rain
over a short period of time, that
could push us into flood situations in
low-lying areas. If it rains slowly
over several days we should be fine,
but a significant amount over a short
period of time would be a problem
because the ground is saturated.”
Thompson also said that June is
turning into the antithesis of May, as
only 15 per cent of the amount of
rain that would be expected in the
month in the watershed fell.
“In a very short period of time,
we’ve gone from low-water condi-
tions to this Watershed Condition
Statement, it was a very quick
change,” she said.
For more information on the
watershed, visit www.mvca.on.ca
A wet walk
Waters on the Maitland River rose so high last week that the walkway at the Brussels Dam
was completely submerged at some points. The Maitland Valley Conservation Authority has
released a Watershed Condition Statement that warns of the danger of potential flooding if
any more significant rain events happen. The authority also removed some of the pieces of
their dams to allow more water through and diminish some of the potential flood conditions
throughout the watershed. (Denny Scott photo)`
Rain marks third year for bad crops: Erb
The recent bout of wet weather is
part of a three-year run of bad for-
tune for local farmers according to
Agri-Solve Inc.’s Merv Erb.
“In this part of Ontario, Huron,
Perth and Oxford, we grow a pile of
edible beans,” he said. “We do white
and kidney beans and they’re not
half-planted yet. The entire crop
should be in the ground by the 10th
of June, but we’re behind here.”
Erb explained that the beans,
which are a 100-day crop, could be
looking at a harvest as late as
October or November, which is
exactly what has happened the last
two years.
“There’s poor growth due to the
wet, and the beans don’t come off
until very late into the season, so the
wheat didn’t get planted in time or
got planted late, which leads to poor
wheat the next year and also leads to
no time to till the field at the end of
the season,” he said. “It’s the same
disaster and mess we’ve had in the
past two years. We’re going to have
three years of mess and three years
of misery.”
Erb said that, on top of last year’s
weather, the current rainy season
Huron and the surrounding counties
are facing, are the worst possible
weather that wheat growers can have
right now.
“The number one wheat disease
that can spring up this time of the
year is fusarium head blight,” he
said. “It devastates the wheat and
puts a toxin in it which makes it so
you can’t feed it to people or to
pigs.”
Erb explained that typically, most
farmers will apply a protective fun-
gicide to the wheat once it is out in
head, that can prevent the blight,
however this year, the weather con-
spired against it.
“Like last year, it was just so wet
at wheat heading time, farmers were
unable to get out and spray in a time-
ly fashion because of the mud,” he
said. “A lot of fields will be sprayed
late, but that’s going to be after the
infection has occurred.”
While there is a lot of yield loss
due to the blight, with Erb estimat-
ing around 10 bushels lost per acre,
the quality loss is devastating.
“You’re losing half the value of the
wheat because no one wants it due to
it being so full of disease,” he said.
Soybeans are also not faring well
in the weather, according to Erb.
“A lot of soybean fields are turn-
ing a poor, poor colour,” he said.
“The growing season has been too
cold, too wet and there hasn’t been
enough sunshine. The soybeans are
running into big deficiencies right
now.”
Erb said that a lack of boron, mag-
nesium and sulphur, due to the poor
growing conditions, is causing dis-
coloration of the plants and will
cause a longer growing season,
which will hurt farmers.
“If the wet weather stops, the
plants will recover, but this is a bad
time of the year to have this rainy
weather,” he said. “If they grow
poorly, you lose time. There is a
minor yield-loss associated with it,
but the big loss is the lag of time
with no or slow growth.”
Having a longer growth time caus-
es other issues as well, Erb said, all
related to the fact that a longer grow-
ing season runs into winter.
“If there is a wet or a late harvest,
we do damage to the soil while get-
ting the crops off,” he said. “Like
last year, there may not be time to
get a lot of tillage done, which could
alleviate the compaction caused by
the farm equipment.”
Erb said some tillage was done in
the spring, but that’s after the winter
freeze and thaw which can expand
and break up the soil, so the plants
are hitting stiff ground and stunting
crop growth.
“The result is that corn roots and
soybean roots are growing in hard
areas,” he said. “There’s lots of
uneven, yellow, poor growth in corn
and poor roots in soybeans and it’s
all going to hurt.”
Erb said that Canada’s neighbour
to the south is facing similar prob-
lems, though the market is being a
bit slow to pick up on it.
“They still have 18 million acres
of corn that is yet to be planted in the
United States of America,” he said.
“They are behind on that and soy-
bean planting due to a very wet May
in the midwestern states. It’s going
to result in shortened crops of corn
and soybeans across North America.
“It hasn’t really hit the markets yet
because, in Chicago, they believe
that rain makes grain,” he said. “The
Chicago Board of Trade, where the
prices are set, doesn’t realize there is
such a thing as too much water. Also,
what happens in Ontario doesn’t
really matter there.”
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A bad season
Soybeans are one crop that is going to suffer from a late
harvest last year and a wet growing season this year
according to crop consultant Merv Erb. (Photo submitted)