A flourishing summer for local agriculture

A sign of a positive agricultural season, the insurer of Quebec producers received half as many claims requests as it had received last year at the same time.

We all remember the difficult weather last summer, and even more so the farmers, some of whom have a bitter taste in their mouths: heavy rains and droughts, frosts at the start of the season…

This year is quite the opposite. In several regions of Quebec, the weather has favored crops, and fruits and vegetables are growing abundantly; the stalls are overflowing.

Some sectors are already drawing up a positive balance sheet – which is rare in agriculture, where we often wait until the end of the season to rejoice…

“Even if we compare ourselves to a good year, we are above average with good yields,” says strawberry producer Pier-Luc Deschamps.

Because the earlier arrival of the berries does not mean a hasty end to the season: the autumn strawberries were planted in May and will last until the first frosts, as usual.

Half as many claims for compensation

It’s not just berry producers who are having a good year, as Financière agricole, the government agency that pays compensation in the event of losses, received half as many claims requests compared to the same period last year.

In total, the Financière had received 2,193 notices of damage as of August 6, mainly for large-scale crops – cereals, corn for animal consumption, soybeans, etc. Last year, on the same date, it was rather 4,527 notices that landed on the insurer’s desk.

If the difference is so great, it is also because we are comparing ourselves to the worst: 2023 was exceptionally bad for Quebec agriculture. The 2024 payments are still below the averages of the last 10 years, which supports the optimism of many farmers, particularly market gardeners.

La Financière agricole manages various programs, including Crop Insurance which compensates for losses in the fields, financed in part by producers.

A good season for wine

Quebec winemakers are also seeing excellent yields, thanks to the mild weather. These days, we’re seeing photos on social media of grapes in full veraison, that blessed period when they turn from pale green to red.

“We are two weeks ahead,” confirms Sophie Bélair Hamel, co-owner of Sœurs Racines, a small vineyard in Saint-Ignace-de-Stanbridge.

Which means the harvest will start earlier. Maybe in mid-September. The entrepreneur explains that this is excellent news for a vineyard, because it removes the pressure to harvest quickly, at the beginning of October, to avoid frost. “It will give us a breather,” she says.

This gives a nice quantity of grapes which will have plenty of time to reach maturity in the fall, full of sugar – if there are no unforeseen weather events.

Small downside: the humidity and the rain have made life easy for mildew, this little fungus which likes vines a little too much and requires that winegrowers treat their plants to avoid losses.

No time to celebrate yet

Rain is received differently depending on the crops and regions. And we cannot draw up a uniform assessment when it comes to agriculture, warns the president of the Producteurs de légumes de transformation du Québec, Pascal Forest, who is not yet celebrating 2024.

The pea crop that has just ended, for example.

Overall, around 30% of pea plants had to be left in the fields this year.

For what ?

“Excessive rain,” explains Pascal Forest, who points out that an episode of heavy rain can be fatal for this type of fragile production. “What do you want to do with 100 mm of water falling in three hours?” he says as an example, specifying that excesses, rain or heat, are very difficult to manage in agriculture.

“It’s certain that last year it was a disaster,” he illustrates, “while this year it’s better.”

Average for grains

Grain producers are expecting an average season, with some slightly drier episodes, particularly in the Lower St. Lawrence where, in this case, the rain brought with the remains of Debby was welcome, explains Benoit Legault, president of the Grain Producers of Quebec.

“It’s pretty close to the average,” he admits, adding that there are big variations in his environment.

In some cases, damage was able to be recovered early in the season. In Abitibi-Témiscamingue, grain and forage producers had to replant this year after their fields were infested with cutworms.

We remember that the 2023 season was difficult for hay producers in Abitibi, the region having been hit by an unusual drought.

David Prince, of the Abitibi-Témiscamingue UPA Federation, points out, however, that there too, fruits and vegetables are having a good year. “For market gardeners,” he points out, “the quality is generally very good in the region because of the more sunshine than elsewhere and the cooler nights than elsewhere.”