N.L. farmers struggling through historically hard winter

by Joan LeBlanc

It’s pretty much a sign of the times – unpredictable and extreme weather occurring more often than ever before – the unfortunate and inevitable effects of climate change.

Indeed, this winter has been one of unpredictable and extreme weather for much of Canada, particularly Newfoundland and Labrador. Parts of the province have been deluged with snow and high winds during the past few months, making life miserable for just about everyone, including farmers.

The worst storm of the season – so far – was the historic blizzard of Jan. 17 and 18, which hit eastern Newfoundland particularly hard, with a record-breaking 76 centimetres of snow falling in the greater St. John’s region, wind gusts of as much as 150 kilometres per hour, and millions of dollars in damage to infrastructure.

“Weather bomb is a good way of describing some of the storms we’ve had, and it’s definitely been challenging for a lot of producers here,” Mervin Wiseman, president of the Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Agriculture (NLFA), said recently.

Wiseman is also the longtime owner of M&E Fur Farm in North Harbour, Placentia Bay, one of the largest fur farms in the world that raises Silver foxes. Despite heavy snow, high winds, and blizzard conditions in early January, Wiseman said his operation made it through relatively unscathed.

“I can’t say that I incurred any structural damage to my buildings, some of which are 250 feet long, but I was lucky,” he said. “The practicality of removing snow from these roofs is really unmanageable. It can’t just fall off the roof because there’s no place for it to go. The snow (around the barns) is already up to the roof. There were 15- to 20-foot drifts in some places.”

LOTS OF WINTER LEFT

He added that with a big chunk of winter still ahead, structural damage could possibly occur due to high snow loads.

“If we don’t get some warmer weather so some of this snow melts, we could be looking at some structural damage,” said Wiseman, adding that one positive aspect of the increasing intensity of storms is that construction rules are stricter and Newfoundland farmers are building more resilient structures.

He said that larger farms naturally have more equipment for snow removal and alterative power sources. Those who don’t can have a tougher time with regular tasks, such as feeding and watering livestock and shipping products to market.

“One (pig) farmer, who actually lives outside of the Avalon (Peninsula), his market depended on him getting into the Avalon area,” said Wiseman. “And because of the (road) shutdowns, he had a big interruption in cash flow because he wasn’t getting to his market. And with the extra cost of feeding his livestock, too, that has some economic consequence as well.”

On the other hand, noted Wiseman, another pig farmer outside of the heavy-hit snow region admitted that he’d never done so well as during the January storm, as the demand for his product was high and he cleared out much of his inventory meeting market demands.

“I guess it’s like my mother used to say, ‘It’s a bad storm that don’t blow someone some good,’” he said.

What this all points to, said Wiseman, is that the issue of food security for an island province is more important than was previously thought.

“We obviously have to work hard at food self-sufficiency, sustainability, without having to depend on distribution and transportation systems outside of the province,” he said.

He added that the industry is aware that farming is a large contributor to climate change, but it has also begun to address mitigating factors and possible adaptations that will allow agriculture to continue successfully in the years ahead.

“There is a lot of research to be done,” said Wiseman. “We have to understand the common denominator, to come up with a workable plan for the future, to make policies that will work for the public and farmers in general.”

BLOWN OFF HIS FEET

Richard Whitaker, an 82-year-old who is winding down his small sheep and hay farm on the Argentia Access Road near Placentia Bay, said recently that although his operation sustained no real damage during the January blizzard, just coping with the extreme conditions was tough.

His main home is some 100 kilometres away from his farm, although he has a cabin on the farm property.

“There were a lot of issues – snow clearance, insufficient water supply, extreme cold,” he said. “While on snowshoes going to the barn, I was blown off my feet three times. I had a lot of problems getting the tractor moving as it was snowed in with heavy ice packed on the heater cables and the fuel pump. And I was at the farm all by myself.”

Whitaker is fortunate in that his steel-clad barns are positioned end-on to prevailing northeasterly winds, so no damage occurred.

“I was scared because if the wind had got under the roof, it would have torn it off,” he said. “And with 60 ewes in the barn, that could have been a disaster.”

Whitaker, a longtime environmentalist, believes it’s imperative that government and industry prepare for the inevitable changes brought on by climate change.

“I am afraid we are in for a lot of violent and extreme weather,” he said. “We must push the government to force greenhouse gas reduction on the nation. Whether we like it or not, GHGs contribute to the problem. We need to minimize fuel consumption and GHG-generating practices. This likely includes feedlot operations, feed composition, and manure handling. We are in a climate crisis worldwide.”

USING SNOW TUNNELS

At the Three Mile Ridge farm and country store near Lethbridge, N.L., Krista and David Chatman and their family are also trying to cope with the effects of winter weather.

Lethbridge is around 225 kilometres northwest of St. John’s.

“We didn’t get it as bad as St. John’s, but we lost the plastic on one of our (three) greenhouses,” said Krista Chatman, adding that it’s costly to replace the plastic on a 16-by-32-foot greenhouse. “We have a lot of blowdown trees on our fields and those will have to be cleared. And when you have livestock, you have to get to them, and our barns aren’t really close to our house. So, it was quite difficult coping with all this.”

Due to high levels of drifting snow, much work is required in keeping building entrances cleared, she said, noting that family members were walking through multiple snow tunnels just to gain access to their farm buildings.

“We’ve got a six-foot-high fence as one of the pens out there, and my dog walks right over it now,” she said.

Like most other area residents, the Chatmans have expended a good deal of concern and energy removing snow from roofs.

“If we hadn’t kept on taking the snow off, they would have caved in,” said Chatman. “We had to remove snow from our boys’ bedroom windows because they couldn’t see out, and you need to always have an escape route in case of emergency.”

With the effects of climate change becoming increasingly obvious, she said the challenge is still being productive despite the weather.

“We practice crop rotation, so organics stay really good in our soil and they absorb and hold water well,” said Chatman. “You really have to watch the weather, be able to know what’s coming a week in advance so you can better cope with weather extremes.”