2023-07-24 23:30:00
The season is off to a good start for many corn producers, who take nothing for granted in this “complicated” summer for Quebec growers, marked by unstable weather.
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“So far, it’s going well. It should be fine, but you never know what disaster hangs over us with the weather, ”says Isabelle Béland, co-owner of the Béland farm and daughter, whose first sweet corn of the year grown in Neuville, near Quebec, appeared on the stalls last Friday.
After a cold spring which “was not easy”, the month of July was marked by intense heat and rain.
Stevens LeBlanc/JOURNAL DE QUEBEC
“The amount of rain, for the moment, it hasn’t hurt too much. It is hot and humid. It’s sure that corn, he likes these temperatures right now […]but we wonder regarding the weeks to come, if it continues, ”explains Carol “Médé” Langlois, co-owner of the Langlois farm and son Chez Médé, also in Neuville.
Day by day
Yields might decrease if the rains continue on this trend. Right now, the corn is tastier than ever, he says.
“We really go day by day. There are really other crops that are more problematic right now than corn.”
Other productions suffered more from the rain such as zucchini, cucumbers and shallots, according to him. Isabelle Béland speaks for her part of a “disastrous” impact for strawberries.
In Saint-Jacques-le-Mineur in Montérégie, the G. Deneault et fils farm, which prides itself on being “the king of sweet corn”, posted photos on Facebook of a corn field completely flooded by torrential rains last Friday. It fell 70 mm of rain in one hour in the region.
Photo taken from the Facebook page The King of Sweet Corn G.Deneault et fils
The owner’s son, Jean-Yves Deneault, says the worst has been avoided. The crop is intact as the water quickly receded. Rainy weather for three weeks, however, prevented him from planting another 25 acres of land, he adds.
Photo taken from the Facebook page The King of Sweet Corn G.Deneault et fils
“It is nature that leads”
“To date, things are going very well, I’m not complaining. […] To date, the yield is very good”, assures the farmer while acknowledging that “we others, it is nature that leads.”
Patrice Léger Bourgoin, general manager of the Association of Market Gardeners of Quebec, speaks of a “complicated season”, all crops combined.
“There is a lack of sun, that is clear.”
According to him, the picture is very unequal, and if corn is doing better, it is clear that several farmers have suffered significant losses for several other products.
“This year, the climatic conditions, and especially the extreme weather episodes, are very localized, he underlines. […] We see that from year to year, this particularity is becoming more and more the norm.
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