Snowfall around Biggar, in west-central Saskatchewan, this week has significantly slowed down efforts to bounce back from a wet harvest season.
Ruthilda-area farmer Jeff Simpson still has about 40 per cent of his crop out in the field after a soggy September and October.
READ MORE: Bad harvest conditions hurting western Canadian farmers
“I started to drive south of Biggar and I couldn’t believe what I saw. There’s just an unreal amount of snow here,” Simpson said, who would normally be preparing to seed the upcoming crop, not harvesting last year’s wheat and lentils.
Sunshine is forecast to arrive in Biggar by the middle of next week.
Many producers in the area will need to double their workforce in order to take off last year’s crop and prepare for the upcoming season, Simpson said.
About 150,000 acres of crop needed to be harvested in Saskatchewan in spring 2016, compared to 1.3 million acres this spring, according to data from the Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corporation.
About five per cent of Saskatchewan’s cropped acres weren’t harvested last fall, said Norm Hall, vice president of the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan.
“We could, potentially, if the weather continues as it has for the last couple weeks, end up with these acres not being harvested in time to be re-seeded this spring,” Hall said.
READ MORE: Saskatoon weather outlook: snow-packed system finally moves out
Some farmers took out cash advances on last year’s crop and weren’t able to harvest enough to pay off the advance, Hall added.
“They’re ineligible to take any cash advance to put in this year’s crop, so that puts them in a financial bind,” Hall said.
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