This summer’s drought has had a significant impact on farmers across the island. From vegetable to dairy farmers, the lack of rain is being felt throughout the industry.

Federation of Agriculture President Wayne Simmons of Hammond Farms Limited in Little Rapids says crop yields are way down, and many animals have had to be taken off pasture land because the grass is gone.

For crop farmers, that means less revenue, for livestock farmers it means greater expense, with hay and other feed having to be shipped in from as far away as Ontario and Quebec much earlier in the season.

‘No pasture growing to feed animals’

“There’s just no pasture growing to feed animals. So they have to bring their animals home from pasture. I was talking to Howard Morry, a sheep producer out on the east coast, and they bring their sheep out to this island…they’ve been doing it for 60 years, and they brought their sheep back a couple of weeks ago, there’s no grass. And this is a little island out in the ocean that’s not getting enough moisture to grow grass.”

Crops failing, or well behind in growing season

Simmons says for produce farmers, many crops failed. He says now that some areas are finally getting a bit of rain, farmers are hoping for a late summer crop before the frost hits. A carrot farmer on the west coast told him his carrot never germinated because it was so dry. A cabbage farmer in central is facing similar difficulties.

“He lost a bunch of cabbage because it was dry, and the once that did come, the bit later cabbage, was growing and then it stopped because of drought, and then all of a sudden when they got some rain, it started growing again, and the heads of the cabbage split open because it just wanted to grow so fast to catch up.”