Last week, Bryan Maynard, the co-owner of Farm Boys Inc. was waiting for fields to dry enough so that his crew could get back to harvesting the 30% of their potato crop that's still in the ground.
Further west, in Alma, Wendell Dunbar said he’s down to his last 20 acres or so. “The first few rains didn’t hurt too much. Actually, it helped,” he said of the early October precipitation that followed an arid growing season. “But now it’s beyond that.”
Besides the deluge of rain over the past month, the fields have endured some cold nights.
“We need help,” Dunbar said, suggesting crop insurance will not even cover cost of production. He’d like to see the P.E.I. Potato Board become vocal about what he views as a disastrous crop.
Besides dealing with poor harvesting conditions, Dunbar said this year’s poor growing season has him harvesting only “half-a-crop”.
Back on Maynard’s farm, the farmer said the yield in his area is relatively good, but he sympathizes with growers further west, like Dunbar, where the growing season was the driest he’s seen in a long time. He said the crop Island-wide will be impacted by the rain and the frost. “I’ve heard a statistic that there was 30% of the crop left on P.E.I. when those conditions became really serious,” he said.
According to journalpioneer.com, P.E.I. Potato Board general manager Greg Donald said the latest estimate has 15% of the Island’s crop, approximately 13,000 aces, still in the ground as of Wednesday.
