ed ANDY BADER MITCHELL ADVOCATE WEST PERTH'S LIFEGUARD STAFF Staff at the West Perth Lions Pool for the 2024 season gathered at the pool recently and include, from left to right, Poppy Challenger (head guard), Haileigh Templeman (lifeguard), Hayden Uniac (lifeguard), Abigayle Van Bakel (lifeguardin training), Grace Bach (lifeguardin training) Mackenzie McLean (lifeguard), Arianna Catalan (head guard), Julia Havenga (lifeguard), Ginny DeJong (lifeguard), Claire Thomas (lifeguard) and Kyrié Bergsma (supervisor). Absent were Annie Agar (lifeguard), Jane Agar (lifeguard in training) and Dean Murray (lifeguard). Heavy, sporadic rain causing : grief for area farmers ANDY BADER According to the Weather Net- many locations already surpass- ing their average total of seasonal rainfall. That’s obviously not ideal for area farmers. onomist Peter Johnson of the website Real Agriculture said the recent rainfall which fell less than a week after the 120 to 130- much, too fast and some crops will uf fer. “Tt’s not just the total amount of rain, because that’s been excessive, but the rate of rainfall that really hasbeen hard to deal with,” John- son said Wednesday, 12-hours af- ter through the region Monday and Tuesday dropping major amounts of rain in a limited time frame. The rain has been spotty, too, noting that some areas that missed one storm received another. One hog farmer outside Wellburn south of St. Marys told Johnson during a two-hour span of do- ing chores Tuesday morning, he received almost 90-mm of rain (three-and-a-half inches). “The ground just can’t absorb it fast enough. The tile can’t take it away fast enough,” he said. “His cornis probably eight-feet tall and some of the field had at least two- feet of standing water in it. the plugandit on you. The edible bean crop of white and kidney beans is “struggling” and most vulnerable to wet con- ditions, he said, with a high risk of root rot, a problem that has been ongoing since they were planted in the middle of June. Soybeans are better equipped to handle rain as they are more canopied and have better infiltration, but even some plants that are 30-40-cm (12-inch- es) high are under water and “they clearly can’t stand that for long.” “Plants, typically if they're un- der water for 48-hours, will die,” he said. Johnson estimates that just 10 “We've had be fore. But it really does seem that when you get in the middle of a thunderstorm it’s like the cloudisa bath tuband Mother Nature pulled cent of " vested the first weekend of July in the Mitchell area, but most grow- ers didn’t push it because it wasn’t quite ready. “If you get heavy pounding rains, if it's really heavy it might lodge and now if it’s lying flat tight to the ground it makes har- vest much more difficult,” he said. “The greater concern across the whole wheat crop is the quality of the crop. The quality has been good but slipping.” Toxins could increase in the crop if it’s wet, he added, but hopefully “we've dodged that bullet. We'll just have to wait and see.” Hay yields for dairy farmers have been “through the roof” thus farin some areas this summer, making finding enough storage difficult for future cuts, he noted. Trying to make dry hay for beef cattle and horses “has just beena nightmare.” Corn is faring out much better, Johnson said. “Tt’s in its rapid growth phase where it pumps water out through transpiration so when it gets rainfall it’s pumping that water out right away so when the next storm comes there’s some dry soil so it can handle the next rain,” he said. Even still, some corn fields have two feet of standing water and although the stalk might be tall enough, “it’s notan ideal situation. "As you move north in general terms there has been less excessive rain and in fact, there was corn a week ago that was really crying for rain. It had been dry long enough that the corn was starting to rope upin the field,” he said, noting that in areas further south, some corn won't even get planted. “It’s been so wet all the way through May and June and the early part of July that some acres on heavy clay soil just never got planted,” he said. Fortunately, the extended fore- cast calls for warm, dry air for a number of consecutive days which the farmers will appreci- ate, but Johnson says secondary issues suchas mudin the saturated fields will make it difficult to drive orpark tractors and pickup trucks anywhere, adding to the overall frustration. “Farmers will be happy to get back in the fields but they will be saturated. It could be that the wheat harvest is like a late corn harvest where we're fighting mud,” he said.