Many farmers facing a slow, 'catastrophic' start to the growing season

Diego Pizarro · CBC News

· Posted: Jun 23, 2025 6:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 2 hours ago

Some Canadian farmers — including successful Ontario — are grappling with a dilatory commencement to this year's increasing play arsenic cooler and dryer upwind has delayed immoderate crops, including strawberries. 

"What we are harvesting close present is possibly 1 per cent of what we were harvesting past year," said Tristan Pfenning, a strawberry grower with Pfenning Organic Vegetables successful New Hamburg. 

Pfenning said that initially, this year's increasing play looked promising until unseasonably acold upwind and a fewer frosty nights hit Waterloo portion successful May. 

"That led to a catastrophic commencement to the play and we're conscionable starting to harvest present with precise debased numbers for the season," helium said. "Those archetypal 2 weeks of harvest are lost, not to beryllium replaced."

Brantwood farms successful Brantford, Ont., is facing a akin slowdown.

"It's decidedly antithetic than immoderate different years we've had. It conscionable seems similar everything's moving a small spot slower than normal," said Andrew Pate, a husbandman with Brantwood Farms. 

The workplace grows a assortment of strawberries that are acceptable to prime astatine definite times. 

"We truly lone effort and prime astir 1 assortment per week. Each assortment of strawberry is lone successful its premier for astir a week," said Pate. 

Typically, the archetypal circular of strawberries are picked starting connected June 1, with the expectation the adjacent variety will beryllium acceptable to prime the pursuing week. But this year, each variety following the archetypal week has been delayed. 

"There's tons of strawberries retired there — it's been a bully year. It's conscionable that they're moving dilatory and they're not returning arsenic accelerated arsenic we would similar them to," said Pate.

The slowdown delayed the opening of Brantwood Farms by 5 days, but Pate believes the workplace volition beryllium capable to marque up for mislaid time. 

"We're astir going to deed our premier erstwhile we person the astir strawberries for Canada Day which is perfect actually," helium said.   

Leafy greens have also been impacted by the acold weather. 

"Our greens are connected the full smaller than accustomed for this clip of year," said Angie Koch, pb husbandman astatine Fertile Ground Farm successful St. Agatha.

"We started our harvest astir a week aboriginal than we usually would and immoderate crops are delayed arsenic overmuch arsenic 2 weeks." 

However, not each of Fertile Ground Farm's leafy greens person been delayed. Cabbage household crops, similar bok choy, broccoli and Napa cabbage, person been harvested early.

"We've had a batch of sunshine and they volition turn great, adjacent successful cooler temperatures, arsenic agelong arsenic they get tons of prima to instrumentality vantage of," said Koch. 

Koch added that the mixed results tin marque for a much hard increasing season. 

"We've ended up with a comic divided season. It makes it hard to fig retired what to bash with everything erstwhile it's not rather acceptable astatine the aforesaid time."

Koch noted that since immoderate crops are down and immoderate are ahead, customers volition beryllium near with less options erstwhile it comes to what they tin bargain from the farm. 

"It each works itself retired aboriginal successful the season, but astatine the beginning, it poses immoderate challenges due to the fact that you conscionable don't person capable to truly pull radical for the sales," she said. 

Irrigation systems not ideal, husbandman says

While drier conditions successful Ontario person not had immoderate impact on the crops astatine Fertile Ground Farm, Koch is acrophobic astir adust upwind this summertime and what imaginable droughts could mean for crops implicit the agelong term. She worries abrupt switches betwixt periods of drought and rainfall volition beryllium damaging to crops. 

"That's the benignant of utmost clime changes that we've been experiencing implicit the past fig of years. It's not similar it conscionable averages retired for a plant," she said. "They person each the accent of excessively overmuch h2o and past each of the accent of not capable water." 

Koch said most rootlike growers usage irrigation systems during periods of drought. But she warns this is not an perfect solution. 

"That's taking crushed h2o retired of the crushed wherever it belongs and turning it into aboveground water. That's conscionable contributing to further problems down the roadworthy for each of us." 

Drought and adust conditions person been an contented for overmuch of Canada this year. According to the Canadian Drought Monitor, much than fractional of the state was classified arsenic abnormally adust successful May.

Anabela Bonada, managing manager of Climate Science astatine the Intact Centre connected Climate Adaptation astatine the University of Waterloo, said she's acrophobic by the long-term, ongoing drought conditions similar the ones seen successful Saskatchewan.

"Ongoing drought causes mediocre ungraded moisture which means stressing of crops," she said.

Bonada said the stressing of crops volition pb to a hold successful their maturation and farmers volition endure financially.

"They're not capable to present the magnitude that they had to hold to with the radical they supply to. It could truly marque them person to pat into their ain insurance."

Bonada besides highlighted that the contented is larger than the crops themselves. 

"In the prairie provinces, we're seeing that the pasture and hay arsenic good is being affected. That tin truly impact the livestock provender availability."

Looking ahead, Environment Canada predicts a warmer-than-usual summertime with uncertain precipitation successful astir provinces.

Bonada said there whitethorn beryllium shortages of definite crops passim the summertime owed to heat.  

"Prepare for higher prices oregon conscionable not adjacent seeing the availability of what you're utilized to."