Farmers reflect on a tough year
Dry spring, wet fall led to poor harvest for some while trade woes hurt prices
Lane Stockbrugger and his brother have been growing grain on their farm east of Humboldt for 25 years.
The chair of Saskcanola said 2019 was “one of the toughest harvests we’ve ever done” as farmers across the province faced a “double whammy” of bad growing conditions and bottomed-out canola prices amid ongoing trade tensions with China.
Many farmers in the province are hopeful that 2020 will be better.
“It was just one thing after another,” Stockbrugger said.
A dry spring and wet autumn meant farmers in many regions of the province saw unequal growing and had trouble harvesting crops as the season dragged on. The year’s last crop report said only 93 per cent of crops were combined. In some areas, such as the north, drier conditions allowed farmers to get virtually all their crops in the bin. But in other districts, like east-central Saskatchewan, showed as little as 83 per cent of crops harvested by the final crop report.
In some cases, adjacent farms had completely different harvest experiences. Farmers with frozen crops in the field can expect a degraded product come spring, meaning more pressure on their bottom line.
Adelle Stewart is executive director of Do More Agriculture Foundation, a non-profit encouraging mental health awareness among Canadian farmers. Federal reports warn they’re disproportionately affected by depression and anxiety.
Stewart worries the poor conditions could worsen that. Her organization visits rural areas across the country in winter to provide “mental health first aid” training with the goal of helping recognize mental illnesses early, especially in communities with limited access to mental health professionals.
“You can actually see the signs and symptoms of mental illness in a loved one before they see it in themselves,” Stewart said.
Beyond the weather, farmers face extra financial stress as a result of China’s trade action on canola after the arrest of Huawei Technologies CFO Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver last year under a U.S. warrant.
Beijing was once Canada’s best customer, buying more than half of all Canadian canola exports; the shock sent the cash crop’s price tumbling by as much as 20 per cent.
Stock brugger said the down market has forced a pivot to new export markets, but adds farmers are still hurting. At a recent Agricultural Producers of Saskatchewan meeting, members voted to request federal compensation for the financial impact of China’s trade action.
“We can’t replace China, and you certainly can’t replace it overnight,” Stock brugger said “It’s such a huge, huge market for us. But it has meant the industry as a whole has taken a look at other markets and other uses (of canola).”
University of Saskatchewan assistant professor Tristan Skolrud at the College of Agriculture and Bioresources says the poor trade conditions led to a seven per cent drop in the amount of canola planted this year.
While Canada is trying to pivot to new trading partners for the golden cash crop, Skolrud notes establishing those new trade channels takes a lot of time — and is unlikely to replace the behemoth that is China.
“As to what happens with China, politically, that’s anybody’s guess,” Skolrud said. “I think there’s the sense the longer this drags on, the more likely it is China can find a substitute (for Canadian canola).”
Farmers are hoping the new year brings better weather and a smooth finish to the previous year’s harvest. But there’s relatively little optimism that canola prices will rebound to their previous levels — or that tensions with China will pass.
“Many farmers were saying ‘I can’t wait to get out of 2019’ in July,” Stock brugger said. “I’d like to say there’s optimism heading into 2020, but there’s a fair bit of harvest that still has to happen.”