Farmers hard hit by harsh winter in Nova Scotia, federation hoping for help

HALIFAX – As the snow begins to recede in Nova Scotia, all that remains of Bob Parker’s main greenhouse is a crumpled pile of aluminum and plastic.

“It basically looks like a bomb hit it,” he said Tuesday from his property in Pictou County. “And because of the amount of snow that’s still on the ground, we can’t even get near it.”

The severity of the winter left farmers like Parker unable to clear the snow off their buildings between storms, and its weight caused widespread damage.

“I think growers did everything they could to try to prevent the loss, but in many cases, the loss came anyway,” he said.

“We’ve been at it for 42 years here, and I’ve never seen the same type of effect.”

Parker, who can’t even reach several of his remaining greenhouses because of the snow, said his farm is about three weeks behind on production.

But he considers himself one of the luckier ones. He knows of other greenhouse growers across the province who lost 50 to 75 per cent of their growing space.

“There are a lot of growers, the larger ones especially, who simply can’t produce a crop this year,” he said.

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Chris van den Heuvel, president of the Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture, said the large surface area of farm structures makes them especially vulnerable to winters like this one.

“I would say that agriculture was hit unusually harder, relative to other industries,” he said.

Based on data gathered from 62 farmers by the federation through an online survey, damage to farm structures across the province is estimated at $8.5 million and counting, far beyond the usual wear and tear.

“And those are just the direct construction or infrastructure damages,” van den Heuvel said. “Those aren’t any of the costs around mitigating any of the snow and ice removal, or any of the long-term costs around business and income loss and so on.”

Kevin McCormick, a maple syrup producer, said the cost of snow removal has been six to seven times what it normally is for him. He spent the winter trying to uncover the tubing system that connects the 29,000 taps on his maple farm in Rodney, N.S.

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“We were tapping, and then we thought ‘Oh gosh, we better start shovelling,’ and so we’d shovel and get some of it ready, and then it would storm another two or three times a week,” he said.

Kilometres of tubing was buried, sometimes under as much as 90 centimetres of snow. “In some cases it’s been too overwhelming to even consider trying to dig out,” said McCormick.

The federation of agriculture will present the results of its online survey to the provincial government once more farmers have responded in the hopes of getting some disaster relief. The Agriculture Department has said it is pleased the federation is gathering the information.

“It’s the long-term effects that I’m worried about,” McCormick said. “It’s a devastating blow to the maple industry.”

Parker shares the same concerns about the ornamental plants he grows and for agriculture as a whole in the province.

“It’s a lot of loss,” he said. “It’s going to be difficult for a lot of growers to come back from this.”