It's been pretty dry lately in the London area and that's making farmers nervous.
With the forecast showing little to no sign of rain in the coming days, the region's main crops - corn, soybeans, and wheat - are starting to feel the heat.
Paul Ward, president of the Middlesex Federation of Agriculture, says soy beans in areas just to the east of London are showing signs of dehydration.
“Crops are really starting to suffer,” says Ward. "They’re starting to turn yellow, which is the first sign that things aren’t going to go that good.”
Ward says the dry conditions are also having an impact on hay in the region.
“It hasn’t even started to re-grow, the hay we’ve taken off in the last couple of weeks,” Ward says, “Usually you start seeing something starting to come out of the ground again to re-grow.”
Farmers don't have to look back too far in their past to remember similar conditions though.
“If the forecast for the rest of the summer is like this, if you remember 2012, we went through the same problem, and basically we got one cut of hay,” says Ward.
The problem is an unlucky mixture of lots of sun and very little rain. What rain does come is sporadic and not enough to sustain healthy growth.
“The optimum is to have one rain a week, or one day of rain a week. That is the top of the top,” says Ward.
While the London area has seen a few good rainfalls, it’s not enough to get to the roots of the crops, which get dehydrated all too quickly.
“It’s just sucked in like a vacuum cleaner,” says Ward.
Ward says all farmers can do now is wait and see if rain comes in the coming days and weeks. He says what the area needs now is a full day of rain.
**this story was written by Samuel Gallant. Samuel is a student in the Fanshawe College broadcast journalism program. He is performing a summer internship with Blackburn News.**
