Harvest Time

I went for a drive in the country today. Primarily south west of Winnipeg. I don't go out that way very often as I have no particular reason to go there. I have no aversion to the area just not much of a reason to be there.

Harvest is in full swing out there. I do not profess to be an expert on agriculture but since I grew up in a farming community, I know a bit. Maybe just enough to be dangerous. I would never attempt to farm with my current level of knowledge.

I did notice a few things as I drove through the Manitoba countryside.

A lot of the crops looked rather short. About two-thirds the height that I am accustomed to seeing.

In fields that were cut, the swaths looked small. It may be related to a lot of the crops being short.

There was a fair amount of inconsistency from field to field. Some were being straight cut while the next one looked like it was cut while it was a bit green.

The last point is a bit of a concern for me. The Manitoba economy is well diversified but does rely on agriculture to a point. If there is significant inconsistency between producers then there will be significant inconsistency between returns for producers. The ones that did well are probably going to do very well, the ones that did not do well, may be in a world of hurt.

As much as a lot of people look at farming as a way of life it really must be approached like a business, especially if you are going to provide for people who depend on you by farming. I hope most farmers do. The inconsistency I observed within a few miles of each other, several times over leaves me concerned that some producers may be forced to give up at this point.

I don't know if corporate farming is the answer, but possibly it may be in some situations. I don't know if family farming is the answer either as one family bearing all the risk of bad weather, disease, and pests is wise in every case. There is insurance, however it is really designed to limp you to the next year and who wants to limp from year to year.

Farming has changed since my parents grew up on farms. There is no way to go back to the way it was and I don't know if we want to. Farming has progressed and stagnated at the same time. We need to produce food. We need to be efficient while we do it, so we can provide a fair and reasonable living to the people who produce food.

We also need food to be affordable so everyone can afford to eat a basic balanced diet. This could be in conflict with the quality of life for the producers. We could have a $5 loaf of bread and very comfortable grain farmers, but I don't think that's the solution.

Industries come, go and change with time. There are parts of food production that cannot change. The food must grow. It must be harvested. Much of it is very dependant on the weather. Weather contributes to risk. Risk predicts failure. Food production cannot fail. So we are stuck in a interesting loop.

South west of Winnipeg the harvest is in full swing. From what I saw some will do well and others will not. Is this how we choose to produce food?