Rain delays planting of Essex County crops, costing farmers money

As the rain falls in Windsor-Essex, so do farmers' profits.

Essex County managed to avoid the heavier rain that was possible over the past couple of days, but more rain and thunderstorms are predicted for Tuesday and Wednesday.

The rain that's already fallen in late May and early June has been enough to delay the planting of cash crops and farmers can see their profits for this year falling already.

Half of the corn and soybean crops in Essex County have been planted. All of the corn and soybeans are usually in the ground by the end of May.

Thousands of dollars of Roundup Ready soybean seeds sit in a seeder at Henry Denotter's farm in Kingsville..

He has 600 acres to plant, but rain has kept him out of the field.

"Finally, it was getting drying up, and we were just about ready to get started again and a little bit of rain [Sunday] night and [Monday] morning, it just opened up," Denotter said.

Farmers are losing a bushel an acre in yield everyday the crops aren't in the ground and depending on prices, that could mean about $600 a day.

Some farmers, such as Brian Hyland, have already had to replant once.

"The beans were just coming through the ground when we got [heavy rain]," he said.

His field was covered with about 10 cm of water. Some beans survived, but not enough, he said.

The expense of replanting his 50 acres will cut into his profits by about 15 to 20 per cent.

Lyle Hall, president of the Essex County Federation, says the delay is affecting the larger economy.

"There's investment in machinery, investment in seed, investment land. It's very difficult to recover from a thing like that," he said.