There is no doubt 2020 has been the most difficult year we have faced in Canada since at least the years this country sent troops to the Korean War with the uncertainty that would have caused for families and the threat of that conflict igniting a larger worldwide battle.
The COVID-19 pandemic has been a battle of a different kind of course, one where the world is allied in their efforts to deal with a disease that has killed thousands, 55 to-date in Saskatchewan.
Fifty-five may not sound like a huge number, but with more than 100 in our hospitals, the health care system is 小蓝视频 stretched rather tight, and were numbers to spike even higher, perhaps after people risk gatherings for the holidays, a health system wreck could be in the offing.
As bad as COVID-19 has been, nearing 300,000 dead in the United States, and more than 12,000 in Canada, it could be worse. The disease is hardest on the aged, if the death toll were among children the effect of our public psyche would be much greater.
So everyone, the farm community included, is looking forward to the end of 2020, forever to be known as the 鈥榊ear of COVID鈥� with hopes 2021 will be better.
Certainly on the COVID front there is an expectation of a vaccine in 2021 so that is a positive.
But, farmers might be facing another serious issue arising in the next year.
In a recent Western Producer story Drew Lerner, president of World Weather Inc. was quoted as stating 鈥淲e are overdue for a multi-year drought. I am totally convinced of that.鈥�
Now weather prognosticators aren鈥檛 always on target. Some might suggest the only reliable indication of the weather is to stick your head out the window, with any other forecast at best 小蓝视频 a guess, albeit an educated guess, but anytime the word drought comes up farmers naturally shudder.
Farmers face a lot of challenges in a normal year in terms of getting a crop to market.
The annual production cycle is largely a minefield of obstacles to be avoided, or if they go off then they are dealt with.
There is spring frost, and weeds, and bugs and plant disease, and too much heat, or not enough, and rain issues, followed by early fall frost, or early snows, machinery breakdowns and of course marketing challenges.
Most can at least be dealt with, chemicals to kill bugs and disease and weeds, careful planning of planting to best avoid early frosts etc., but if the rains don鈥檛 come, the crop can easily be reduced, and in extreme drought conditions, a crop can be lost.
Few things are thus scarier than the possibility of a multi-year drought, and if it arrives in 2021, it will impact Prairie farmers harder than the pandemic that has the world in its grip right now.
Calvin Daniels is Editor with Yorkton This Week.
