EDMONTON- It’s that time of year again. Farmers across the prairies are putting in long hours to bring in the crop.
“I was swathing ’til 1:00 last night and dad was up at 4:00 to take over,” said Jonathan Chamulka, a Leduc County area farmer.
Harvest is in full swing in Alberta, and ideal weather conditions have produced a bumper crop this year.
“Yields are incredibly this year. Just to say the least it’s just, we’re kind of not counting anything before it’s all in the bin, but right now things are looking really good. There’s nothing to complain about, definitely not,” Chamulka explained.
Plenty of rain early in the summer followed by hot and dry conditions have led to bumper crops. Early returns show yields are up 10 to 15 per cent.
The best harvest on record in Alberta was in 2011. Analysts say this year’s harvest is looking fairly similar, but say it’s too early to be certain.
“We have only 20 per cent of crops in the bins. So we’re waiting to see what will happen end of October, November,” said Lukas Matejovsky, a crop statistician with Alberta Agriculture.
There is a downside, though; grain prices have fallen. In 2012, prices surged to an all time high because of drought in the United States. But now that the drought is over there is less demand, resulting in a 20 to 30 per cent decrease in grain prices.
“I guess we can’t have everything, like yields and price. But it would be nice if it rallied back a little bit,” Chamulka said.
Even with the lower prices, farmers are expecting a banner year.
With files from Ross Neitz, Global News.
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