CASTOR, Alta. – The day Stacey Renschler watched his three-year-old son
line up his farm toys and pretend he was having a sale, he knew the
drought that has plagued their farm for three years had become a family
tragedy.
Last week, the severe dryness was affecting about 70 percent of
Alberta, killing crops and forage stands as temperatures remained over
30 C with no rain in the forecast.
Renschler and his neighbours in the Castor area in east-central Alberta
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face a bleak winter.
The July 17 announcement of $324 million in farm aid from the Alberta
government was welcomed but it did little to ease fears.
“We’ve been in this for so long, a one-year helping hand is probably
not going to cut it,” said his father-in-law Richard Elhard.
“2002 has been beyond anything we have ever seen. It is beyond what
crop insurance has seen,” said the 60-year-old.
Sitting around the kitchen table, Renschler, Elhard and other
neighbouring farmers formed the East Central Drought Crisis Committee
to provide emotional support, talk to bankers and pressure the federal
government into realizing the seriousness of the situation.
The group feels Ottawa has abandoned them.
“We’re in this slow and boring drought in a huge area. Where is some
support for us?” said Tom Coppock, who sent most of his cows to
pastures in Manitoba rather than sell off the family’s major income
source.
Many producers in the area sold their entire herds with no plans to buy
them back when rain returns.
“No straw. No feed. No grain. Probably no cows,” is Renschler’s
assessment.
George Glazier runs 200 cows at his ranch near Coronation, about 30
kilometres southeast of Castor. He plans to bring the cows home from
summer pastures any day now because there is no feed left. He will
likely sell most of them.
He works at the Veteran, Alta., auction market where the best price
for a good quality cow-calf pair was just over $900 in mid-July. Last
year, a comparable pair may have sold for as much as $1,700.
The low price means Glazier has lost his investment in the cow and any
potential profit from the calf.
“You’re going to see nearly a total depopulation of cattle in this
region,” said Elhard.
Glazier estimates 10 percent of the cow herd might remain after this
season. Producers in their late 50s may not restock because prices will
be too high and their equity has been depleted.
The situation has been aggravated by swarms of voracious grasshoppers
that stripped off greenery not destroyed by drought and intense heat.
This is semi-arid country where average precipitation is about 250
millimetres per year. The last real rain was in July 1999.
Between May and September of 2001, Elhard recorded 158 mm at the
Environment Canada collection point on his farm. There has been almost
no measurable precipitation this year.
Many producers with crop insurance coverage have had their fields
written off. The payments are usually enough to cover the cost of seed
and inputs.
Renschler works off the farm as a carpenter and he knows others who are
driving to work 100 km one way.
“If I didn’t work fulltime off the farm, I don’t know…,” he said.
For his father-in-law Elhard, getting a job at the age of 60 does not
seem realistic.
“I can run any kind of equipment, but who is going to hire me?” he said.
