CLARESHOLM , Alta. – A blanched landscape is the only view Ron and Doris Lamb have from their farm between Barons and Claresholm.
“There is no sign of a let up. If we had a big fall rain, things would still be dry,” said Lamb.
Back to back droughts are eroding southern Alberta farm productivity and family budgets.
On the Lamb farm, wheat yields were less than 20 bushels per acre compared to a normal year of 45 bushels. Other fields were not worth combining. The puny harvest was done by the end of August.
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“Last year was a half of a crop. This year is a quarter of a crop,” he said. They grow wheat, feed barley, fields peas, chickpeas and some canola. The canola was abandoned because it was seeded late and never properly developed.
Hope floats on a field of sunflowers planted south of the house. Ron Lamb and some neighbours are experimenting with a 40 percent oil sunflower, which is destined to become a high energy feed supplement for cattle.
By Oct. 2 he was still waiting for a hard frost to cure the heads.
“I’m very impressed with the crop for the year. If it had been barley, it would have been a writeoff. There wouldn’t have been enough to turn the cattle in on,” he said.
Along with his two brothers and brother-in-law, Lamb farms 4,000 acres and runs about 350 cows. With about five centimetres of rain this summer and no snow last winter, most crops failed. Feed and water must be hauled to the brood cows.
Calves were weaned six weeks earlier than normal. Normally calves are backgrounded on the farm and sold as yearlings. That won’t happen this year because Lamb lacks a usable winter pasture.
Besides a hot, dry summer, they were plagued with grasshoppers, lygus bugs, diamondback moths, wind and hail.
Things turned ugly by the beginning of June.
“I could see the writing on the wall and started cutting costs,” Lamb said.
That included cutting back on spray and fertilizer.
No fall crops have been seeded in the area because it is too dry and the skeletons of weeds like thistle and kochia were left behind to hold the soil that is in danger of blowing away this winter.
Having lived with drought in the late 1980s, these third generation farmers have devised a drought survival plan.
A private irrigation project involving five pivots should salvage parts of the farm next year.
During the late 1980s, they built an extensive water system with wells and dugouts and 10 years ago, they initiated no-till cultivation, leaving as much residue on the land as possible. For the last 15 years they have continuously cropped, but this year some land was turned over to chemical fallow to trap any available moisture.
“We’re able to stand the drought now in terms of agronomics. We can grow crops better now than we did in the Eighties. I don’t know about the economics. Costs are much higher now,” he said.
“The squeeze is worse financially.”
He has already discussed his option with his bank because bills must be paid this winter. There is no money left in his NISA.
Ironically, many remain optimistic, hoping next year is better.
“I still love the job. I still love the challenge,” said Lamb.
Alberta Agriculture extension staff in southern offices admire the spirit of the farmers they were hired to help.
“People are remaining positive but the implications of another year of drought are huge,” said Wendy Schatz of Claresholm.
Dave Spencer of Medicine Hat agrees.
“Things get bleaker every month,”
His region received less than three inches of rain between April 1 and Sept. 30.
This is 31 percent of normal and makes it the driest summer since records started in 1886.
From Jan.1 till the present, the region received less than eight centimetres, which made it 36 percent of normal precipitation, setting an all time record for dryness in southeastern Alberta. Overall, it has been the driest 24-month period since the crop year of 1928-29.
“Last year we operated with 60 percent of normal precipitation so that indicates that we came into a real dry year and it only got worse,” said Spencer.
Significant areas of pasture were not grazed or were closed early. Most dryland hay fields yielded nothing, forcing livestock producers to search for hay and straw from northern Alberta and eastern Saskatchewan.
In the Foremost area south of Medicine Hat, Alberta Agriculture’s Carrie Rogers-Butterwick estimates between 60 and 80 percent of dryland crops were abandoned. Some people used the sparse fields for grazing. A few people attempted a harvest that pulled in less than three bushels to the acre.
“I was in fields where it was 1.5 bushels on dryland,” she said.
In a year where feeder calf prices are holding, southern cattle producers are struggling. Feed costs are estimated at two and a half times what they normally are because cows must be fed with bought hay and supplements.
“Anybody with cows is really struggling. Nobody has any feed or water. People are paying through the nose to feed them,” she said.
