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- L’Étincelle • www.letincelle.qc.ca • mercredi 7 septembre 2016
The season is well underway, but there are some
Drought confirmed in Québec and
Ontario
According to the scale established by
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada every-
thing south of Québec City is evaluated as
being abnormally dry. The situation wor-
sens for the regions further south, such as
the Eastern Townships, Montérégie, and
Montreal where the drought has obtained
level one, a moderate drought. The drought
is even more elevated in the Ouataouais re-
gion where it has reached level 2, a severe
drought.
The Eastern Townships shows the greatest
deficit of precipitation, with a difference of
over 120 mL when compared to averages.
The southern part of the province has re-
ceived 60 to 70 per cent of the normal
amount of precipitation from April 1st to July
1st. In the worst cases, this number falls to
40 per cent.
Crops could suffer a significant drop in yields
if this situation persists, especially for wheat
as they are at the filling stage. Winter wheat
producers in Ontario have already declared
large yield losses with yields of 60 bushels
per acre, well below the expected 100 bu-
shels per acre for the region.
The impact of the drought on your crops
Naturally, a dry season affects your fields. In
a field, the symptoms of a lack of water are
influenced by a number of different factors
(topography, type et depth of soil, pH, com-
paction, etc…) and it is these factors that de-
termine the presence of zones in which the
plants are affected alongside areas where
the plants have no symptoms.
Corn:
OMAFRA reported that : stress
caused by heat is different than stress
caused by dryness. Corn usually tolerates
temperatures up to 38°C before damages
occur under circumstances where the corn
is not simultaneously subjected to drought.
The sensitivity to temperature and dryness
varies from one hybrid to another. Lack of
rain during silking and pollination can greatly
reduce expected corn yields. Insufficient hu-
midity can inhibit cobs from obtaining their
normal size or even inhibit the production of
cobs or grain. For some producers, this si-
tuation causes immediate difficulties be-
cause they must have enough forage to feed
their livestock.
Soya:
The vegetative growth stage of soya
corresponds to the number of fully-dev-
eloped trifoliate leaves on the plant. The re-
productive stages start at flowering (R1-R2)
and include pod development (R3-R4), seed
development (R5-R6) and the maturation of
the plants (R7-R8)
Dryness, just like excess water, greatly in-
fluences the development of soya plants.
Yields are hardly affected when the soya
that should be noted because every