Farmers are a moody bunch. Our preoccupation with weather and crop conditions would be an interesting masters or PhD study for an ambitious student of human behaviour.
To simply say that farmers without adequate rainfall are depressed doesn’t capture the full range of emotion. It’s much more complicated, plus everyone reacts a bit differently.
Most seasoned veterans are philosophical, noting that a year like this one was bound to happen again. They hearken back to previous droughts to compare and contrast how this one stacks up.
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Young farmers who haven’t experienced this sort of slow motion crop failure can be excused for being somewhat bewildered.
Everyone logically knows they can’t do anything about the weather, but that doesn’t stop the second guessing about what might have been done differently to ensure a better plant stand. Seeding earlier or deeper or with a different seeding system or with a different crop mix are among the “could have, should have, would have” regrets.
Farming is one of those rare endeavours where your year’s work is on display for all to see. Everyone driving by can judge your successes and failures against their own. It’s easy to have your sense of self-worth elevated or deflated by how your crop looks relative to your neighbours.
It’s also possible to feel like a victim if you haven’t been doing well in the thunder shower lottery. In regions with good crops, producers have extra gratitude in a year like this.
Even in the very dry areas, there’s likely to be some crop to harvest this fall, but how much yield can feasibly be expected? When will it actually rain again? Uncertainty can wear you down.
In certain years, crop insurance prices have ended up higher than market prices at harvest time. Every bushel you managed to scrape out of the dirt actually cost you money because it was one fewer bushel for which you could have received the higher crop insurance value.
This year, with grain markets relatively strong, the proper incentives exist to try and maximize what can be salvaged. At the same time, crop insurance prices aren’t terrible and the program will provide a strong backstop for producers in the hardest hit regions.
The grain sector has enjoyed a number of good years, so most producers have the ability to survive a production wreck. That helps ease anxiety. Relatively strong market prices also provide hope for the next production season.
Harvest may not be quite such a dismal affair if rain finally arrives and the crop ends up a bit better than expected. Otherwise, the long hours on a combine will be a grind.
Producers who have experienced severe flooding say that too much water is actually worse than too little. With drought, one rainfall can bring improvement, but with water-logged land, any solution takes time.
A severe hailstorm on a good crop can be devastating emotionally, but it’s sudden rather than prolonged agony. And usually you don’t lose all your fields in a hailstorm.
When you have a good crop in the field at this time of year, the potential for hail is certainly a prime worry, but there’s strong motivation to get harvest equipment and storage ready.
When the crop is poor, it’s difficult to be excited by the impending harvest. Sometimes producers actually hope for a hailstorm as long as they have good insurance coverage.
The growing season emotional roller-coaster continues.
