“Weird, wild and whacky” is how David Phillips, senior climatologist with Environment Canada, sums up the 2014 growing season to date. From a long, cold winter, to a wet and late spring, and into a rather cool July full of major rain events, farmers in Ontario haven’t been able to catch a break.
As the corn and soybean harvest approaches, all eyes are on the weather — and for good reason. That late start and cool July has left the crop behind average and farmers are beginning to throw around the fear of that F-word “frost.”
As Phillips highlights in this audio interview, this growing season has been whacky, yes, but when it comes to just how far off average it’s been, the numbers may surprise you. What’s more, that pesky term “persistence” comes into play now — farmers want to know, is this cool wet trend set to continue into September? Phillips discusses that and more in this harvest weather outlook for 2014.
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