Quebec farmers say crops getting washed out by rainy summer

Quebec farmers say they're getting washed out by a particularly rainy summer this year, as enduring precipitation leaves crops water-logged, roots rotten, and harvest hauls reduced.

"No farmer enjoys putting pesticides out at all," said Phil Quinn, co-owner of Quinn Farm on Ile-Perrot. "We're doing fungicide right now because we have to. It's a very, very expensive proposition."

"To treat this field here with fungicide, you're talking $500 or $600," he said while kneeling in an expansive strawberry field. Strawberries are particularly vulnerable to excess water because of their thin skins and relatively short harvest window.

A short walk through the field lead him to a handful of unsellable berries. "We've got a little bit of fungus going on here," he said, picking up a strawberry with one side that appeared to be caved in.

It's not just a problem at Quinn. He said crops in eastern Quebec are particularly affected after considerable and repeated rainfall soaked large areas near Quebec City and the Eastern Townships.

"We've seen a lot of rain," said Environment Canada Meteorologist Peter Kimbell, who says Sherbrooke, Que., which typically logs around 120 millimetres of rain in July, has already seen more than double that this summer.

"That's unheard of," he said.

The costs keep growing for Quebec's agriculture sector, and farmers have to eat the costs, says Quinn.

"Our prices are fixed with the large grocery chains early on in the season, and there is no compensation for our losses right now," he said.

Another undesirable effect of the rain is the taste. Strawberries, for example, will soak up a lot of water, diluting the sugars in the fruit and making for a less flavourful bite.

Quinn says he's hoping for some relief from the rain soon, but holding out – farming is, even in the best of times, an unpredictable business.

"It needs to stop raining right now, but we're used to being thrown curve balls all the time," he said.