'Some are harvesting about 25 per cent of what they would typically expect. The conditions are terrible'
Author of the article: Laura Brehaut
Publishing date: Aug 19, 2021 •
"It's going to be an interesting season because we're seeing lowered (wheat) production across major exporters globally," says Daniel Ramage, Cereals Canada's director of market access and trade policy. PHOTO BY DAVID GRAY /Getty Images
Overlooking the Bow River as it winds from the Rockies through Southern Alberta, Hannah Konschuh farms wheat, canola, barley and yellow peas. “It’s really brown right now, but our farm is actually in a beautiful spot,” she says, taking a break from harvesting wheat in the 33 degrees Celsius heat.
Due to the drought and unprecedented temperatures across Western Canada, her county of Wheatland has declared a state of emergency. On day five of this year’s wheat harvest at her family farm, Generation Land & Grain Co. Ltd., the effects were obvious.
Their Canadian Prairie Spring, which yielded 65 bushels an acre in 2020, has dwindled to 12. Usually more drought-tolerant, their hard red spring is also suffering; as is their barley, yielding 10 to 15 bushels per acre compared to last year’s more than 100.
Hard year or not, Konschuh takes pride in growing grain. “It’s pretty remarkable to say that this wheat I’m growing right now is going to end up all over the world and in someone’s kitchen. It’s a pretty special thing to get to say that I’m growing wheat in Alberta.”
They’re fortunate, Konschuh adds. Last year’s growing season was fruitful, which created a buffer. They have crop insurance, manage their expenses and choose farm upgrades carefully. Even still, the implications of the drought are many. Unable to fulfil the “conservative” amount of grain they pre-sold to some of their buyers, they had to pay the replacement costs. As grain plants wither, grasshoppers thrive, putting increased pressure on already struggling crops.
“In the middle of the summer, I was feeling pretty stressed about it. And you do what you can,” says Konschuh. “We’re going to be fine for next year. But what really contributes to my stress levels is that it’s been said that droughts come in three- and five-year cycles. So if we do find ourselves in a prolonged drought cycle, it will have impacts on our ability to keep doing this.”
Overlooking the Bow River as it winds from the Rockies through Southern Alberta, Hannah Konschuh farms wheat, canola, barley and yellow peas. “It’s really brown right now, but our farm is actually in a beautiful spot,” she says, taking a break from harvesting wheat in the 33 degrees Celsius heat.
Due to the drought and unprecedented temperatures across Western Canada, her county of Wheatland has declared a state of emergency. On day five of this year’s wheat harvest at her family farm, Generation Land & Grain Co. Ltd., the effects were obvious.
Their Canadian Prairie Spring, which yielded 65 bushels an acre in 2020, has dwindled to 12. Usually more drought-tolerant, their hard red spring is also suffering; as is their barley, yielding 10 to 15 bushels per acre compared to last year’s more than 100.
Hard year or not, Konschuh takes pride in growing grain. “It’s pretty remarkable to say that this wheat I’m growing right now is going to end up all over the world and in someone’s kitchen. It’s a pretty special thing to get to say that I’m growing wheat in Alberta.”
They’re fortunate, Konschuh adds. Last year’s growing season was fruitful, which created a buffer. They have crop insurance, manage their expenses and choose farm upgrades carefully. Even still, the implications of the drought are many. Unable to fulfil the “conservative” amount of grain they pre-sold to some of their buyers, they had to pay the replacement costs. As grain plants wither, grasshoppers thrive, putting increased pressure on already struggling crops.
“In the middle of the summer, I was feeling pretty stressed about it. And you do what you can,” says Konschuh. “We’re going to be fine for next year. But what really contributes to my stress levels is that it’s been said that droughts come in three- and five-year cycles. So if we do find ourselves in a prolonged drought cycle, it will have impacts on our ability to keep doing this.”
Throughout Western Canada — from Vancouver Island to Northwestern Ontario — Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Drought Monitor map paints a stark picture. The three Prairie provinces especially are mottled brown, red, orange, tan and yellow, indicating a sliding scale of abnormal dryness.
Because of the record-breaking temperatures and lack of rain, harvest started seven to 14 days early in the Prairies, says Daniel Ramage, Cereals Canada’s director of market access and trade policy. And though there’s regional variation, yields are lower across North America.
“It’s going to be an interesting season because we’re seeing lowered production across major exporters,” says Ramage. In addition to lower yields in North America, countries including Russia and Kazakhstan have also trimmed production estimates. “So the supply available globally is shorter than it has been in previous years.”
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“We had a really good growing season last year (pictured), so that’s going to buffer us a bit,” says Hannah Konschuh, who farms near Cluny, Alta.
PHOTO BY HANNAH KONSCHUH
The latest USDA estimate forecasts 24 million tonnes of Canadian wheat production; a 32 per cent decrease from 2020. Despite the drop, Ramage doesn’t expect shortages in Canada: “Our domestic consumption in a normal year would be around eight million tonnes — (24 million tonnes is) more than enough.”
With grain in shorter supply, however, prices may rise; according to the 2021 Food Price Report, bread prices could increase by as much as 6.5 per cent by the end of the year.
Harvest is underway in the Prairies, but the full effect of the severe weather on the quantity and quality of grain is yet to be determined. Farmers in some areas are faring well, says Erin Gowriluk, executive director of Grain Growers of Canada, but in others, harvest could be as low as 50 per cent.
While it may not be unprecedented, Gowriluk adds, the drought is unique in how widespread it is. In the past, provinces may have seen pockets of drought where wheat quality would drop, but 80 per cent would remain good, very good or excellent. Now, the situation is inverse: In Alberta, for example, 80 per cent of the crops are of lesser quality.
Whether it’s drought, excess moisture or early snowfall, farmers are on the front line of climate change, says Gowriluk. “I think what’s becoming increasingly challenging, especially for young farmers who are just coming into this and facing some pretty significant expenses, is not knowing. It’s the uncertainty of what impact climate change is going to have on their ability to viably farm.”
Tony Van Den Tillaart, co-founder of Fieldstone Organics in Armstrong, B.C., has been farming for 45 years and grows a variety of grain (such as emmer, spelt and an assortment of wheats) in the Spallumcheen area. “This is the worst year I’ve ever witnessed,” he says. “Since the snow left this spring, we haven’t had enough rain that would wet your T-shirt.”
Disheartened, Van Den Tillaart watched his grain plants wither as the weeds kept growing. “Even in my garden, I had cherry trees that looked like I was going to get a nice crop and the heat just fried them. They shrivelled up to nothing. It was just so hot. Apples were burnt on one side, little green apples. It’s like someone took a torch to them.”
On top of the drought and heat, his area is also under a wildfire evacuation alert. “These fires have just made it worse because you don’t get the sunlight. It affects plants that are trying to ripen.”
The farmers Van Den Tillaart works with at Fieldstone have reported varying challenges, depending on their region of B.C., type of soil and moisture levels. Some are harvesting 75 per cent of what they did in 2020; others 50, 25 and even 10 per cent. As a result of this shortfall, he’s prepared to prioritize smaller orders in the coming year: “We might not be able to fill some bigger orders.”
Janna Bishop, co-founder and CEO of Flourist — a mill and bakery in Vancouver, which sources dry goods directly from Prairie growers — has been in close contact with their farming partners over the past few months.
“Some are projecting almost no harvest at all, or just enough to maybe replace the seed that they planted in the ground so they can get seed planted next summer. Some are harvesting about 25 per cent of what they would typically expect,” says Bishop. “The conditions are terrible.”
Flourist will rely on 2020 grain harvests for as long as possible, and is considering diversifying suppliers by expanding to other regions such as Ontario or B.C. Since Bishop and Shira McDermott founded the company in 2014, traceability has been a priority. The names and faces of their farming partners appear on their packaging and website, and Bishop says they empathize when they’re struggling.
“We will feel the effects in a few months when grain reserves start to really dwindle, and we’re scrambling to find (grains) and we’re probably paying much higher prices,” says Bishop. “The farmers are the people on those first lines. They see it every single day that there’s no rain in the forecast, and it’s awful to witness. But it’s important to be connected to our food in that way.”
At his Saskatoon bakery, The Night Oven, Bryn Rawlyk also strives to create connections between his customers and the food they eat. Since he dumpster dived for the components of his first wood-fired oven, which he built with friends in Montreal’s parc sans nom (park without a name) in 2005, he’s engaged in improving community access to food.
Early in the farm-to-table movement, he began to question why flour wasn’t considered in the same way as other local produce, and set out to change that perception. Today, he makes loaves such as his Saskatoon Sourdough with Red Fife wheat flour milled from grain grown within a two-hour radius of the city.
Rawlyk grew up on an acreage outside of Saskatoon where grain wasn’t just a local food but a local activity. “People in Saskatchewan are always once or twice removed from a farmer,” he says. “Here in the Prairies, we’re known as the breadbasket of North America. That’s shown in the product, but also just the livelihoods of so many of the people, and the people connected with those activities and families and forums.”
This is the worst year I've ever witnessed. Since the snow left this spring, we haven't had enough rain that would wet your T-shirt.
Every farmer he knows has been affected by the drought, and some of those he works with have enough stock set aside from 2020 to meet his bakery’s needs for the coming year. But like Konschuh, he worries about what will happen if the drought continues: “Everyone’s been on edge.”
In terms of the 2021 harvest, the question of quality remains: How will wheat grown under drought and heat stress perform for bakers? At The Night Oven, Rawlyk prioritizes using local flour and buys it regardless of the challenges presented during a given season.
“We try to find different uses for it within the bakery,” he says. If a grain isn’t suitable for making a lofty loaf of bread, they might make crackers or flatbreads instead. “That’s what I think is a nice thing about the dynamic nature of what we’re allowed to do, and those skills as bakers in the bakery — of taking a product and being more nimble with it.”
Baker Dawn Woodward, co-owner of Evelyn’s Crackers in Toronto, works predominantly with Ontario-grown grains such as rye, Red Fife wheat, spelt and barley, but buys einkorn from the Prairies. Contrary to the Western Canadian experience this year, many Ontario farmers faced drought followed by a long stretch of rain, rogue hail storms and high winds.
Woodward is accustomed to adapting to the needs of different grains and suspects that with climate unpredictability, variability in their quality and quantity will grow. “A lot of what I make is tailored to fluctuation,” says Woodward. “I make a pan loaf, so it doesn’t matter if the bread’s a little on the soupy side this week. It’s a pan loaf. A cookie is a cookie, maybe I’ll bake it frozen instead of bringing it to room temperature.”
Flavour is her focus, Woodward adds, which often comes down to the farmer and variety of grain versus year-to-year weather fluctuations. “I feel very lucky in that I’m not producing 1,000 baguettes, where if there’s a change in the flour, you’re screwed.”
At Flourist’s bakery, they’re also used to responding to the specific requirements of each grain. But part of the company’s task is conveying information to their home baking customers, so they can make the kinds of loaves they desire.
“Because we’re extremely committed to our farming suppliers and milling our own grain, we have to let the grain tell us how to make the bread,” says Bishop.
They’ve seen a drop off after the initial surge of baking enthusiasm in 2020, but expect increased interest in the fall. “This is bad timing to be coming off of a really terrible harvest,” she adds. “But I hope it serves as an opportunity to help illustrate to people the challenges of growing food.”
The latest USDA estimate forecasts 24 million tonnes of Canadian wheat production; a 32 per cent decrease from 2020. Despite the drop, Ramage doesn’t expect shortages in Canada: “Our domestic consumption in a normal year would be around eight million tonnes — (24 million tonnes is) more than enough.”
With grain in shorter supply, however, prices may rise; according to the 2021 Food Price Report, bread prices could increase by as much as 6.5 per cent by the end of the year.
Harvest is underway in the Prairies, but the full effect of the severe weather on the quantity and quality of grain is yet to be determined. Farmers in some areas are faring well, says Erin Gowriluk, executive director of Grain Growers of Canada, but in others, harvest could be as low as 50 per cent.
While it may not be unprecedented, Gowriluk adds, the drought is unique in how widespread it is. In the past, provinces may have seen pockets of drought where wheat quality would drop, but 80 per cent would remain good, very good or excellent. Now, the situation is inverse: In Alberta, for example, 80 per cent of the crops are of lesser quality.
Whether it’s drought, excess moisture or early snowfall, farmers are on the front line of climate change, says Gowriluk. “I think what’s becoming increasingly challenging, especially for young farmers who are just coming into this and facing some pretty significant expenses, is not knowing. It’s the uncertainty of what impact climate change is going to have on their ability to viably farm.”
Tony Van Den Tillaart, co-founder of Fieldstone Organics in Armstrong, B.C., has been farming for 45 years and grows a variety of grain (such as emmer, spelt and an assortment of wheats) in the Spallumcheen area. “This is the worst year I’ve ever witnessed,” he says. “Since the snow left this spring, we haven’t had enough rain that would wet your T-shirt.”
Disheartened, Van Den Tillaart watched his grain plants wither as the weeds kept growing. “Even in my garden, I had cherry trees that looked like I was going to get a nice crop and the heat just fried them. They shrivelled up to nothing. It was just so hot. Apples were burnt on one side, little green apples. It’s like someone took a torch to them.”
On top of the drought and heat, his area is also under a wildfire evacuation alert. “These fires have just made it worse because you don’t get the sunlight. It affects plants that are trying to ripen.”
The farmers Van Den Tillaart works with at Fieldstone have reported varying challenges, depending on their region of B.C., type of soil and moisture levels. Some are harvesting 75 per cent of what they did in 2020; others 50, 25 and even 10 per cent. As a result of this shortfall, he’s prepared to prioritize smaller orders in the coming year: “We might not be able to fill some bigger orders.”
Janna Bishop, co-founder and CEO of Flourist — a mill and bakery in Vancouver, which sources dry goods directly from Prairie growers — has been in close contact with their farming partners over the past few months.
“Some are projecting almost no harvest at all, or just enough to maybe replace the seed that they planted in the ground so they can get seed planted next summer. Some are harvesting about 25 per cent of what they would typically expect,” says Bishop. “The conditions are terrible.”
Flourist will rely on 2020 grain harvests for as long as possible, and is considering diversifying suppliers by expanding to other regions such as Ontario or B.C. Since Bishop and Shira McDermott founded the company in 2014, traceability has been a priority. The names and faces of their farming partners appear on their packaging and website, and Bishop says they empathize when they’re struggling.
“We will feel the effects in a few months when grain reserves start to really dwindle, and we’re scrambling to find (grains) and we’re probably paying much higher prices,” says Bishop. “The farmers are the people on those first lines. They see it every single day that there’s no rain in the forecast, and it’s awful to witness. But it’s important to be connected to our food in that way.”
At his Saskatoon bakery, The Night Oven, Bryn Rawlyk also strives to create connections between his customers and the food they eat. Since he dumpster dived for the components of his first wood-fired oven, which he built with friends in Montreal’s parc sans nom (park without a name) in 2005, he’s engaged in improving community access to food.
Early in the farm-to-table movement, he began to question why flour wasn’t considered in the same way as other local produce, and set out to change that perception. Today, he makes loaves such as his Saskatoon Sourdough with Red Fife wheat flour milled from grain grown within a two-hour radius of the city.
Rawlyk grew up on an acreage outside of Saskatoon where grain wasn’t just a local food but a local activity. “People in Saskatchewan are always once or twice removed from a farmer,” he says. “Here in the Prairies, we’re known as the breadbasket of North America. That’s shown in the product, but also just the livelihoods of so many of the people, and the people connected with those activities and families and forums.”
This is the worst year I've ever witnessed. Since the snow left this spring, we haven't had enough rain that would wet your T-shirt.
Every farmer he knows has been affected by the drought, and some of those he works with have enough stock set aside from 2020 to meet his bakery’s needs for the coming year. But like Konschuh, he worries about what will happen if the drought continues: “Everyone’s been on edge.”
In terms of the 2021 harvest, the question of quality remains: How will wheat grown under drought and heat stress perform for bakers? At The Night Oven, Rawlyk prioritizes using local flour and buys it regardless of the challenges presented during a given season.
“We try to find different uses for it within the bakery,” he says. If a grain isn’t suitable for making a lofty loaf of bread, they might make crackers or flatbreads instead. “That’s what I think is a nice thing about the dynamic nature of what we’re allowed to do, and those skills as bakers in the bakery — of taking a product and being more nimble with it.”
Baker Dawn Woodward, co-owner of Evelyn’s Crackers in Toronto, works predominantly with Ontario-grown grains such as rye, Red Fife wheat, spelt and barley, but buys einkorn from the Prairies. Contrary to the Western Canadian experience this year, many Ontario farmers faced drought followed by a long stretch of rain, rogue hail storms and high winds.
Woodward is accustomed to adapting to the needs of different grains and suspects that with climate unpredictability, variability in their quality and quantity will grow. “A lot of what I make is tailored to fluctuation,” says Woodward. “I make a pan loaf, so it doesn’t matter if the bread’s a little on the soupy side this week. It’s a pan loaf. A cookie is a cookie, maybe I’ll bake it frozen instead of bringing it to room temperature.”
Flavour is her focus, Woodward adds, which often comes down to the farmer and variety of grain versus year-to-year weather fluctuations. “I feel very lucky in that I’m not producing 1,000 baguettes, where if there’s a change in the flour, you’re screwed.”
At Flourist’s bakery, they’re also used to responding to the specific requirements of each grain. But part of the company’s task is conveying information to their home baking customers, so they can make the kinds of loaves they desire.
“Because we’re extremely committed to our farming suppliers and milling our own grain, we have to let the grain tell us how to make the bread,” says Bishop.
They’ve seen a drop off after the initial surge of baking enthusiasm in 2020, but expect increased interest in the fall. “This is bad timing to be coming off of a really terrible harvest,” she adds. “But I hope it serves as an opportunity to help illustrate to people the challenges of growing food.”
