Heavy rain not helping Atlantic Canadian farmers

Euclide Bourgeois, who owns La Fleur du Pommier just outside Moncton, has been farming for 40 years and has seen many rough seasons but the recent stretch of wet weather has been one of the worst.

“Right now we’re probably a week behind schedule, but the way it’s raining this week, we probably wont get much done, so we’ll be two weeks behind by next weekend,” Bourgeois said.

Share this on X Click to share quote on X: "Right now we're probably a week behind schedule, but the way it's raining this week, we probably wont get much done, so we'll be two weeks behind by next weekend," Bourgeois said.

With the unusual amount of rain seen in New Brunswick in the last few weeks, farmers like Bourgeois can’t get to what needs to be done.

READ MORE: New Brunswickers begin flood cleanup, province assesses road damage

“We’d be planting carrots, we’d be transplanting lettuce, and we’d be getting things ready for the summer markets which we cant do right now because the ground is just like muck,” he said.

The difficult terrain also means he cant get his equipment out to work the soil either.

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“When you go and work that soil now, when the sun comes out and it dries on top it gets rock hard,” added Bourgeois

Even his bee hives, which are usually buzzing with activity, are quiet.

“Not a bee in sight because its just too cold and too wet, they’re not interested.”

Share this on X Click to share quote on X: "Not a bee in sight because its just too cold and too wet, they're not interested."

Over in Nova Scotia, farmers have been getting good weather in the western end of the province, but in the east things are quite different.

“We’re not in a panic situation yet, forage wise, crops that are already established are OK. Probably where the hold up is, as far as cropping is concerned, is getting new crops in the ground from corn or soy beans,” said Chris van den Heuvel with the Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture. “It’s still too wet, but we’re not at the point where it’s too late to plant.”

READ MORE: Water levels to remain high but steady along St. John River Basin: New Brunswick EMO

So while Bourgeois and other farmers like him wait for the weather to cooperate, he said there is at least one upside to all this rain.

“Usually we have to canoe when the snow melts because the rivers around Cocagne are too shallow … the river levels are going back up and we’re still canoeing. We can’t plant carrots so we might as well be canoeing,” Bourgeois said.