Unusual weather a blessing and curse for Quebec farmers

A hot end to the summer has some farmers saying it's making up for the rest of the growing season's cold and rainy weather, while others are sounding the alarm on an increase in weather swings.

At 25 degrees, itwas sixdegrees higher than Montreal's historical average at the Fall equinox Friday.

Philippe Beauregard's Potager Mont-Rougefarm in Rougemont, about 50 kilometres southeast of the city, looked like summer was still going strong.

"It's back-to-school, but my goshit feels like the construction holiday," Beauregard saidFriday, which was aday off for many schools in the area andQuebec's construction holiday being the last two weeks of July.

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'Far from a record year'

Beauregard co-owns the farm with his family andsays the growing season was "far from a record year" because of all the rain,but the hot days and lack of precipitation recently have given crops a boost.

Beauregard said his farm was lucky compared to others hit by a brief hail storm in July that caused extensive damage.

45 seconds of hail and $120,000 of damage

Quinn FarminNotre-Dame-de-l'le-Perrot was one of those hitand co-owner Phil Quinn said the "45 seconds worth of hail, it hit us [for] probably $120,000," holding up a damaged apple. It hurt 25 per cent of Quinn's orchard.

Quinn saidfarmers in his area wouldexpect hail once every five years, "now it's every summer we're getting two, three bouts of hail.It's not fun."

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He says abnormal weather has been "more and more common" in recent years "and it sucks for anyone who's growing anything."

Warm weather saves crops

Jean Fournelowns Ferme Anse au Sable inNotre-Dame-de-l'le-Perrot and said he almost lost big because of the unusual growing season.

Fournel had advised the province's crop insurance in July that he would have to claimfor almost half of his revenue in lost crops because of the cold and wet weather, but this month's heat saved them.

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"For people who grow corn and soybeans, it's benediction actually," Fournel said.

But before the mild weather, the summer's cooler days and torrential rains had stunted cropgrowth.

"We were stressing that it wouldn't mature, now the stress is gone, it will mature and we will have a good crop," he said.

"I'm happy and I'm not the only one," Fournel said, adding his neighbour, another farmer, called the other day while on vacation in Germany to find out how the weather has been.

Strawberry fields forever

To Montreal's north, Isabelle Charbonneau, the owner of the large strawberry farm FraiseBec in Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines, said the fruit are doing so well grocers have pushed buying American produce back in order to keep hers on the shelves.

"At this time of year, to have temperatures like this, it's like candy," Charbonneau said with a laugh, describing the strawberries in her fields.

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She said the warm days extended the amount of blooms and the cool nights sealed the sugar inside the fruit.

The growing season at FraiseBec would be ending in the next couple weeks if it wasn't for the heat. Charbonneauexpects it tolast an extra 10 days or so this year.

This period of the year would have typically yielded 500 to 700 boxes of strawberries, but Charbonneau says the farm's producing between 3,000 and 4,000 thanks to the September heat.

"We're able to supply the province in small fruits," she said.