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Challenges of unharvested crops continue

Although spring is officially set to arrive this week, there is still snow on the ground and puddles coated with ice most mornings.

Although spring is officially set to arrive this week, there is still snow on the ground and puddles coated with ice most mornings. The dangers of a potentially dry spring, combined with the consequences of a wet fall are still far from some people’s minds.

At a recent fire chief’s meeting, concern was expressed regarding the upcoming spring season being potentially dangerous, due to the amount of crop that remains in many farmers’ fields.

“This year, because of the amount of unharvested crop that still remains, I have more concerns,” confirmed St. Paul Fire Chief Trevor Kotowich, last week. “There is a substantial amount of fuel that remains, specifically with that of canola crops.”

As always, Kotowich encourages people to burn responsibly, and use plenty of caution. As far as he knows, the County of St. Paul will not be doing anything differently this year, and burn permits are still required for “all types of burning.”

There is no cost to getting a permit, and permits are issued for a period of 10 days. But, burn permits can be withdrawn or cancelled at any time, if conditions warrant it, says Kotowich.

The Fire chief also offered a few guidelines to follow when doing a spring burn. First, the permit is only valid for the quarter of land specified; second, producers are asked to cultivate the perimeter of that quarter, so there is a 24’ foot section of soil break; third, they should then cultivate the perimeter quarter into four portions.

Then, light the perimeter of each of the small portions, and allow it to burn into the center; light the downwind area first, before lighting the upwind area; burn into the wind; and complete burning when winds are less than 15 km/hour and the wind direction will be the same for the entire burn.

Kotowich asks anyone with any questions to contact the County of St. Paul at (780) 645-3301; or Fire Services at (780) 645-4100.

A recent post on the Agriculture Financial Services Corporation (AFSC) website acknowledges that the harvest in 2016 was difficult for many producers in Alberta, and heading into the spring, there will be a few things to consider.

“It left lots of crop unharvested in the fields due to excessive moisture, and created financial and logistical problems for farmers,” says information from AFSC, in an attempt to relay information to farmers who will be seeking options on how to deal with unharvested crops.

“Now as the snow melts away, the unharvested crop will need to be dealt with.”

The main steps that producers should take before going into the seeding season are: contacting a local AFSC Branch Office if all or part of an insured crop is to be harvested; contacting a local AFSC Branch Office to have an inspection completed before harvesting or putting the crop to another use; submitting a revised Harvested Production Report to a local AFSC Branch Office once the harvest is completed.

With 967,569 acres being reported as unharvested by producers, AFSC is processing an unusually high number of claims over the last few months. Through it all, AFSC’s team of inspectors is adhering strictly to established claim inspection standards, which results in the process taking more time, says the website.

“Extra measures are being taken to address the extraordinarily high number of claims. Among these steps are allocating available resources to high demand areas and plans to combine inspections of wildlife damage with unharvested crop in the fields,” says AFSC.

One challenge many producers may come across as they inspect their crops this spring is that there could be damage caused by wildlife.

“The Wildlife Damage Compensation Program (WDCP) is in place to bring relief to farmers whose crops are affected by wildlife. There is no requirement for farmers to have an insurance policy with AFSC to be eligible for support under the WDCP,” says AFSC. Given the number of unharvested acres, the number of wildlife damage claims is expected to increase as snow melts and farmers determine the state of their crop still on the ground.

“If a producer has plans to put their crops to another use, they should contact their local AFSC Branch Office and indicate their requests for both pre-harvest and wildlife damage inspection. Those inspections can occur simultaneously.”

Inspection requests must be submitted, and AFSC will need to inspect the damage before the crop can be harvested or put to another use. Information about the number of processed and pending claims is tracked on the AFSC website.


Janice Huser

About the Author: Janice Huser

Janice Huser has been with the St. Paul Journal since 2006. She is a graduate of the SAIT print media journalism program, is originally from St. Paul and has a passion for photography.
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