Parts of Saskatchewan and Alberta are facing the worst drought in years. That’s bad news for cattle producers and farmers, since the region is among Canada’s most productive farmland. And if shortages are significant enough, it might affect what consumers pay at the store.
“Some producers are telling us that they haven’t had [any significant] rain for six, could be the seventh year,” Ray Orb, president of the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities, told The Epoch Times.
“This is an ongoing drought, it’s not just the last couple of years … and I think that’s what a lot of people are concerned about.”
So far, more than 50 rural municipalities, out of 295 in the province, have declared an agricultural state of disaster.
Mr. Orb spoke about one rancher he met in the southwest.
“So really no rain there at all. … He told me that if he sells the rest of the herd, he’s probably not going to get back into cattle again because it just has this recurring problem.”
The lack of moisture is affecting crops—everything from wheat to lentils—as well as cattle producers, across an area that includes much of southwest Saskatchewan and southeast Alberta.
“Some areas haven’t had any native grass, any pasture at all this year … there was no moisture in spring, there has been no moisture all summer,” said Brodie Haugan, the chair of Alberta Beef Producers, whose members produce well over half the cattle in Canada. “We continuously hear of operations that have already dispersed [sold off completely] or downsized their herds.”
Some cattle operations face shortages of feed, while others face shortages of water, or both.
“Even today, I heard of another two guys that are completely selling out. We’re hearing a lot of examples of guys either completely dispersing or just selling down to how much feed inventory they have, and what they figure they can get through the winter with,” Mr. Haugan told The Epoch Times.
“We’re seeing the area of drought continuously get larger by the day,” added Mr. Haugan, with a growing number of counties declaring agricultural states of emergency.
“Yet we have areas that it just doesn’t stop raining, either … and yet, we still have fires spread across central and northern Alberta as well. So just a year of severe events that is continuously changing by the day,” he said.
The picture is not any better for some producers growing crops.
“It’s severe,” said Todd Lewis, farmer and past president of the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan. “In a lot of cases it’s going to be zero production this year, between drought and grasshoppers and other factors.”
Like Mr. Haugan, however, he said it depends on which part of the province producers are in. In some areas, he said, crops are fine, but in the southwest it’s a different story.
Most farmers carry crop insurance, said Mr. Lewis, but it will not cover all the losses.
“Nobody farms for crop insurance. It’s hopefully a way to cover off some of your expenses and so on,” he said. “Unfortunately, for a lot of these producers, we’re into four or five, even six or seven years of depleted moisture, so things like crop insurance, like any insurance program, if you collect it too often your coverage goes down.”
Both Mr. Lewis and Mr. Haugan said it’s not all bad news. For example, while cattle feed like hay may be difficult to get and expensive in some areas, there are other parts of Alberta where hay crops have been good.
“It’s more of an issue of just how to get it off the field, and how to get it where it needs to be,” said Mr. Haugan. “So we’re hopeful that the areas that need it can get connected with the areas that have it.”
For many farmers, said Mr. Lewis, the drought of 1988 remains the worst in memory. But he pointed out that better soil management techniques, and more drought-resistant varieties of crops, have made the latest drought a little less devastating than it might have been.
“We’ve seen some surprising results, as we’ve seen in parts of the province … some green coming in that maybe we wouldn’t have had before. … We are really growing more bushels with less water.”
However, that doesn’t mean they don’t need rain.
“But unfortunately, if you don’t have water, you don’t have much. And that’s the sad reality of a lot of areas this year,” he said.
“We’ve been waiting patiently for the federal counterparts to give us some indication of if and how AgriRecovery payments would be triggered,” said Mr. Haugan.
On Aug. 14, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said her government has been pushing Ottawa on the issue of drought relief.
“Yes, we are pushing the feds on this,” Ms. Smith told a news conference. “It does require the federal government to come to the table. Our stability programs are all cost share, and so [Agriculture Minister RJ Sigurdson] and his counterparts have been advocating for the federal government to come through the program and when they do, we'll certainly pay our share,” she said.
While farmers and ranchers hope Ottawa will step in with some extra help, the best prescription is rain.
“Everybody’s hoping for big rains this fall, after we get to harvest and get this crop in the bin,” said Mr. Lewis. “Good snowpack in winter, and good rains next spring.”
