Although there’s still a little time left for farmers to pull their crops off the field, it’s looking more and more like 2018 will see a repeat of the 2016 harvest. In fact, this year may be worse.
Two years ago, persistent wet weather in September and October meant most farmers were still out in their fields combining well into November.
Provincially, it is estimated that 10 per cent of crops remained unharvested by the start of December, though it was considerably worse in the northern regions of Alberta.
As you can see from turning to the Town & Country newspaper, four provincial crop commissions issued a collective warning last week that 7.8 million acres of crops remain unharvested throughout the province. Canola is doing the worst, with only about 26 per cent of the canola crop being harvested.
Worse, much of the crop that is being harvested is very wet. Reportedly, virtually everyone with grain drying equipment is full up to capacity from farmers bringing in their crops.
Although you can see crops still standing in fields just by going for a drive, we reached out to County of Barrhead ag fieldman Kyle Meunier to see if he had any idea of how bad things are locally.
Meunier said he estimated the harvest is about 30 per cent done in the County of Barrhead, and just like other areas, the crop is quite wet and getting moldy in the swaths.
On the plus side, Meunier noted that if the snow hadn’t come down straight, then conditions would be a lot worse.
Exacerbating this situation is the drought that has ravaged southern Alberta. Hay prices are through the roof right now as southern producers desperately search for enough feed to make it through the winter.
Lac Ste. Anne County declared a state of agricultural disaster last week due to the adverse conditions. So has Stettler County, and more will likely follow suit.
When asked if the County of Barrhead would make its own declaration soon, Meunier said they discussed the matter during a recent Agricultural Service Board meeting. Because it’s still early October, he said they’re not prepared to make that declaration yet, but they will revisit the issue in November.
Mind you, such a declaration doesn’t actually do anything except to highlight the severity of the situation to provincial and federal authorities, who will ultimately be responsible for bringing forward programs to help producers.
And that’s where we come to the point of this editorial. We add our voice to those who are calling upon both the federal and provincial governments to start preparing to assist both those who grow crops and those who raise livestock.
We can pray for better weather for the rest of October, but we should not expect it. We can no longer trust to hope.
