The Rural Voice, 1998-09, Page 22A dried-up bed in Keefer Creek near Owen Sound (left). Corn stands only four feet tall in late August in Grey -Bruce (right).
Region's drought dries up farmers' livelihood
In the worst drought -affected areas of Grey -Bruce farmers scramble to save their livestock and crops
Story by Allison Lawlor & photos by Ted Shaw
Farmers worst hit by the drought
in Grey and Bruce counties
have stopped asking for rain. It
has come too little too late for
thousands farming in the drought-
affccted arca.
This year is reminiscent of a
decade ago when the same counties
were starved of rainfall in the
drought of '88. However, farmers
and agricultural experts say this
year's drought is the worst they've
seen.
While the drought has affected a
large area of the province, some areas
have been hit harder than others.
Experts at the ministry of agriculture
have had a difficult time getting an
accurate picture of the drought
because the affected areas have been
spotty.
The popular remark echoed across
the counties is that the drought
conditions vary from concession to
concession and field to field.
18 THE RURAL VOICE
The worst hit areas are believed to
be in Port Elgin and surrounding
area, west to Owen Sound and up the
Bruce Peninsula, and in Huron
County where the soils are light and
sandy or gravely. Although some
crops will be bellow average, Perth
County has missed the worst part of
the drought.
Stories circulate about who has
received the least amount of rain and
where the highest temperatures have
been this summer. One beef producer
west of Desboro said that while he
could often see thunderclouds and
lightening from his property this
summer, not even a drop of rain
landed on his fields between June
and the beginning of August. The
situation has been just as bad for
Lloyd Hendry, a dairy producer in
Kincardine Township. According to
Hendry, May 18 was the last time he
got a full inch of rain on his farm,
since then he has received less than
an inch.
You only have to take a drive
around the badly affected areas to
see cracked soils, acres of brown
pasture fields, stunted corn standing
only three feet high and dried up
creeks and streams.
Farmers are worried not only
about saving their crops but finding
enough feed and water to keep their
livestock. Beef producers in Grey -
Bruce have started to move some of
their cattle off pasture and send them
close to six weeks early to the sales
barn.
Garry Kuhl, manager of Keady
Livestock Market, said the number of
cattle moving through his sales barn,
just south of Owen Sound, is close to
three times higher than normal at this
time of year. The cattle coming in
said Kuhl, are 75-100 pounds lighter
than usual.
"The grass is not coming back,"
said Kuhl. Farmers realize this and