June 5 was the last day to seed barley around Fort St. John, B.C., according to crop insurance rules,
But on that day, Nick Parsons was only half finished seeding his barley, and anything seeded after June 5 cannot be insured.
Now Parsons will gamble on a frost-free fall and seed the rest of his crop.
“We’ve got seed in the bin and fertilizer. We’ve just got to hope we’ve got a good fall,” said Parsons, who farms 800 acres at Farmington, between Fort St. John and Dawson Creek. “I can’t live on unseeded acres.”
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With little crop harvested last year due to wet autumn weather and an early winter, Parsons is living on crop insurance and money from a bumper crop two years ago. He can’t make that money stretch a third year.
Cash flow needed
“If we haven’t got the wheat board cheques coming in this year and last year, it is very, very serious.
“We just need Mother Nature to co-operate this fall and we’ll get through,” said Parsons, who emigrated from England six years ago.
The farmer is lucky his crops were covered by crop insurance last year. Some of his neighbors didn’t have coverage and were forced to burn their worthless crops earlier in the week.
“It must have been a terrible feeling to have to burn money,” said Parsons. He estimates one neighbor watched $80,000 go up in smoke.
“To burn a crop is a real farmer’s gut feeling and they nearly walk away in tears.”
It appears the farmers who got the least harvested last fall are having the most difficult time this spring getting their crops in, said Gord Oulette, crop insurance representative at Fort St. John.
“The guys that were in trouble last fall are still in trouble this year.”
