Third wettest May on record provides optimism for Medicine Hat area farmers

Medicine Hat had one of the wettest months of May on record with 127 millimetres of precipitation.

Meteorologist Alysa Pederson of Environment and Climate Change Canada said it was more rain than usual.

“Normal is around that 43.8 mark. So that’s the third wettest May on record in Medicine Hat since 1886,” Pederson said.

“[Over] 139 years of data, and it’s almost 300 per cent of normal.”

June is normally the wettest month for the Medicine Hat area, Pederson feels that it will be hard to beat the May numbers, but expects a normal 65 millimetres for the month of June to not be out of the question, especially if we see more thunderstorms.

Wade Watson farms and ranches in a variety of areas around Cypress County.

Rain amounts in those areas have fluctuated for his crops and pasture land.

Watson said he’s seen anywhere from two to six inches depending on the area, which has helped bring up the crops.

“We have emergence pretty much on everything. So yeah, crops come up really nice with that moisture,” Watson said.

“We didn’t have to irrigate it up, which was good. Natural rainfall adds more phosphorus and nitrogen than we’d see from irrigation water, so that’s an added benefit.”

Glen Ebel farms around Cypress County and into southwestern Saskatchewan.

Ebel said heavily grazed pastures will still need more time and moisture, but this spring has been quite good.

“It brings me back to 2002 where we just finished a big drought and it’s kind of similar,” Ebel said.

“It was dry in the spring, turned wet, and it was one of our very good years. We were moving hay north that year and that felt good. Rather than getting hay from up north, we were sending it.”

Ebel had just started with some irrigation on hay land on Monday to try to stay ahead and is hoping for some more moisture.

“We’re still 80, 90 days away from combining, so yeah, it would be nice,” Ebel said.

“More rain, a little more sun, no wind, no hail.”

Watson said that farmers have to prepare for the worst and take advantage of the good times.

“This is a good start to the year. We’re not done yet,” Watson said.

“One more decent rainfall I think in June will set us up on our pasture end of things. I think it’s going to be an overall benefit to the industry.”

Watson adds it’s been a complete change around from the preparations of the worst-case scenarios for drought potential earlier in the year.

There is reason for optimism in the agriculture industry.

by Jesse Gill

Third wettest May on record provides optimism for Medicine Hat area farmers

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