Winter has been long, but many farmers in British Columbia’s northeastern Peace River region aren’t looking forward to the spring.
Under the snow lays a tangled, frozen mess of unharvested, sprouted crop and foot-deep ruts.
“The crop is tied to the ground,” said Murray Tenove, regional agricultural engineer in Dawson Creek. Some estimate at least 60 percent of the area’s crop is still in the field.
The problems began almost a year ago with one of the coolest and latest springs in 50 years. In a normal year the crop may have been able to grow fast enough to catch up, but the summer was cold and wet.
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“They went into the fall with saturated ground and darn near a bumper crop, but a little green,” Tenove said.
For many farmers it was like playing Russian roulette, he said. Do they try and swath the crops in the saturated fields and hope to get it off in the spring, or do they leave it standing and try to steal an acre or two before the snow comes?
“People were desperate trying to get their crops off.”
In that desperation, farmers gouged deep tracks with equipment in their fields.
Because Tenove knows what waits for farmers in the spring, he wants to see if there’s enough interest to have two custom-made rut recovery discs built. A trio of Alberta farmers used a Kello-bilt prototype seven years ago when they had similar problems.
“I’m trying to see if there is enough interest. If there’s enough interest there’s still time, if necessary, to have a couple more built.
“I know there’s a number of people with this common problem. Maybe there’s something we can do if we go out and act together.”
