Image courtesy Ross Lavigne

By Darren Rathwell

Concern about possible farming disaster in 2022

May 6, 2022 | 5:26 PM

CYPRESS COUNTY — Spring seeding is underway in southern Alberta, but following a dry winter and spring, there’s already concern about a potential disaster looming for some area farmers.

“To be perfectly honest it doesn’t look any different than when we talked last time in February,” said Dustin Vossler, Cypress County Agriculture Service Board director, “ground moisture conditions are still horrible.”

Environment Canada numbers show there was a minute amount of moisture in the first 3 months of the year in Medicine Hat, and during April, precipitation was half it’s usual amount.

Alberta Agriculture says the sparse recent moisture won’t do much to help farmers long term.

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“Because it’s a reserve. It feeds the plants between the rains and it also acts as a buffer between some short term dry spells and hot weather,” Ralph Wright, manager of Alberta Agriculture’s Agro-Meteorological Applications and Modelling Section said.

Wright points out southern Alberta has generally been dry for most of the past five years

“Now more than ever you guys are dependent on the rains that are promised by the forecast,’ he said.

And on Friday, Vossler said blustery conditions would likely only make for drier farmland. Environment Canada forecast winds gusting up to 90 kilometers an hour in the region.

“We’ve seen probably 10 days of (windy conditions) already this year. That’s signficant compared to normal springtimes. It’s always windy but not this windy,” Vossler said.

“It starts feeling like we’re living in Lethbridge here. We live in the Medicine Hat area for a reason and not Lethbridge because it’s not so windy,” he added.

May is typically one of the wettest months of the year, and Vossler says at least 25 millimetres is needed soon. Without signficant rainfall, he says the region’s on track to be an agricultural disaster zone

“We’re 4 to 5 years now of toughing it through and everybody’s been holding on with coat tails trying to ride it. But there’s only so long you can ride it for you have to make some difficult decisions.”

Declaring a disaster could result in government assistance for farmers, but Vossler says not even that may be enough to help some stay afloat, if the rain doesn’t fall soon.