b'WILD WEATHERReining in UnrulyMother NatureAs weather has become more erratic over the years, you may wonder what you can do as a farmer to protect your crops.MOTHER NATURES whims have proven challenging sinceKeith Gabert, There is no perfect recipe for dealing with crazy the very earliest farmers first placed seeds in the ground. Wildweather. That said, hes got a few tips he recommends to weatherfrom drought to excessive moisture, damaging heatproducers. to killing coldcan decrease yields, damage crop quality, andThe first advice I usually try to give growers is grow more delay (or even suspend) everything from seeding through tothan one variety, Gabert explains. While he cant give a magic harvest.number on how many varieties/hybrids of any specific crop a With many Canadian farmers challenged by particularlyproducer should grow in a season, he says producers should volatile weather in recent growing and harvest seasons, findingnot pin all their expectations to one variety. Planting multiple ways to manage less-than-ideal environmental conditions is avarieties and multiple crop types spreads risk.top-of-mind priority for farmers, agronomists and agriculturalIt is well worth it to try out options. It does lower your risk. researchers alike.There are some differences between varieties that might prove Is weather today more unpredictable? I wouldnt go that far.better or worse given the conditions youre facing in a given Its wilder, its weirder, its wackier, says David Phillips, a senioryear. If you only grow one variety and you end up disappointed, climatologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada.youll be disappointed in the crop as a whole since you dont Were not seeing any weather we havent ever seen before; ithave another hybrid to compare it to.just has a different frequency. The 50-year storm becomes theSecond, he reminds growers to make sure theyre doing 20-year storm. Were seeing storms that are bigger, more out ofeverything else right to get a stand well-established and to season, more out of place, longer lasting, more intense. Stormspromote a healthy crop throughout the growing seasonseed are stormier, floods are floodier, droughts are droughtier.well, provide adequate nutrition, and stay on top of pests, Unfortunately, says Canola Council of Canada Agronomistweeds and disease. A healthy crop has a better root system 32seed.ab.ca'