Rain, fog push back farmer’s growing season
‘Omega Block’ caused unusually long period of cold, wet weather
Inside a barn on Lester’s Farm, a donkey curls up on the ground while cows and calves chew on a bale of hay. Peacocks sit facing the wall, their vibrant patterns facing out, as chickens strut around next to them.
On the left side, the dark tongues of several sheep stick out as they “baa.” Those closest to the front seeming to direct the lambs, born only a couple weeks ago, back under the warmth of a heat lamp.
As the barn door swings slightly in the wind, Jim Lester, who operates Lester’s Farm with his wife and three children, stands in front of two goats, born that day, which appear to be drifting off to sleep.
Most years, these baby goats and lambs would be born outside. But given the past couple weeks of weather on the Avalon, where rain, drizzle and fog were a near constant, they had to be brought indoors.
“We tend to schedule our lambing and calving of the cattle to the first of May and the end of April and that way they can calve and lamb outside,” he said. “On account of this miserable, cold rain, that’s actually harder on them than snow, because they can’t insulate themselves against the rain. So, we had to bring the sheep, in particular, to lamb inside.”
The system responsible for this cold and damp weather is called an Omega Block, Saltwire chief meteorologist Cindy Day said.
“If you look at it from space looking down, there are two areas of low pressure with a nice big ridge up at the top and it forms like the Greek letter omega,” Day said.
A high-pressure system over the southern tip of Greenland formed because the air over the ice was so cold. About 900 kilometres southwest of St. John’s it sat, blocking the lowpressure system from the south.
It has started to break up in the past couple of days. But for several weeks, it just sat there.
“It’s not uncommon to have drizzle and fog but it’s not usual that it lingers quite this long and that’s just the result of the strength of that Greenland high,” Day said.
That system has impacted the beginning of Lester’s growing season as well.
Unless they get some sunny and windy days over the next couple of weeks, the land will not be dry enough for them to work.
“We have a really heavy clay soil in this area,” Lester said. “If you manipulate the clay soil when it’s wet and then it gets hot, it’ll harden just like bricks and often you’ll have to go replant and replow everything.”
A wet soil is a cold soil, Lester says. So, the roots of vegetables usually planted early like corn, carrots, potatoes and hearty root crops like cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower, would have to work a lot harder to get the nutrients out of the soil.
“Seeds are pretty delicate. They can handle a fair bit of cold air, but the reality is, if they got wet feet, there’s less oxygen in the soil for the roots and the roots are colder and aren’t able to take out the nutrients,” Lester said.
The earlier their produce hits the market, the better it is, he said. It gives them a longer season to stretch out their income.
For those interested in seeing their animals up close, Lester’s Farm will be holding a “Petting Barn” this Saturday, April 24.