It’s been an odd summer for southern Alberta rancher John Smith of the Plateau Cattle Co.
It’s been dry for so long that streams and water sources have started to dry up in his part of the eastern slopes of Alberta’s Rocky Mountains west of Nanton, he said. It has occurred even as other producers in much of the province have dodged the proverbial bullet when it comes to the drought many feared would continue from last year due to dry conditions this winter and spring.
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“It’s kind of rained again in the last day or two, so we’ve got about eight tenths (of an inch) here, which at this time of year isn’t going to do us a lot of good,” said Smith on Aug. 24, pointing to hay he estimated was about half of what it would be normally.
It is difficult to pin down how well Alberta’s farmers and ranchers are doing in terms of precipitation, said Ralph Wright, manager of the Alberta Climate Information Service for Alberta Agriculture, Forestry and Rural Economic Development. “You’ve almost got to go county by county, and in some cases even farm by farm.”
For example, the hamlet of Sedalia in Special Area No. 3 in southeastern Alberta northwest of Oyen received less than 120 millimetres of rain, he said during an interview Aug. 24. Areas within a region from roughly Calgary south to Lethbridge have also been relatively dry, he added.
“But we can’t forget those generous rains we had, and some places did have excessive moisture,” he said, pointing to the area between Edmonton and Camrose south to Olds.
Higher than average growing conditions and yield expectations “materialized after the heavy rainfall events in June that were so widespread across Alberta,” said the provincial Alberta Crop Report for Aug. 23.
“June replenished surface soil moisture and accelerated crop growth and potential. However, over the last month a rapid reversal in that trend on soil moisture is reported and… very low sub-surface soil moisture levels are not offering much stockpile moisture or buffer for crops now that rains have been more limited.”
The report said 61 percent of sub-surface soil moisture was rated as poor to fair, which marks an increase compared to the 10-year average of 39 percent. Wright said the last 60 days were drier and warmer than normal in much of the province.
“How is that going to play out to the final harvest? Well, I guess we can only look at the crop report now, and Alberta is doing better than it normally does.”
The report said 69 percent of all crops were rated as good or excellent in terms of growing conditions across the province. Although it meant Alberta was ahead of five- and 10-year averages of 55 and 63 percent, the rating marked a decline from 75 percent just over a month ago on July 12.
Smith’s ranch near the Livingstone Range is in one of the most beautiful regions of Alberta. But when that fact was pointed out to him, he laughed as he said there are some days he wonders how lucky he is to live there.
He and his wife, Laura Laing, have spent several years fighting the provincial government to prevent proposed open-pit coal mining in their part of the Eastern Slopes. His father passed away early in the dispute, which the family still sees as an ongoing threat to the future of the ranch Smith’s grandfather started in the late 1950s.
Smith and Laing had to sell 140 head of cattle last fall due to drought and heat waves in 2021 that resulted in a lack of feed for many beef producers in Alberta. “And there was some pretty good cows there, but they were older cows and that’s what we decided to do to try get the feeding costs down to a manageable level.”
It was a tough decision, but it meant the couple weren’t forced to sell any more cattle this year out of their current herd of about 450 head, helping to preserve the genetics. However, it marks a decline from up to 600 cattle their operation would normally contain in a good year.
Dry conditions this spring caused some producers in Smith’s area to further contemplate destocking their herds, said Smith. Although precipitation in the middle of June helped salvage pastures in the nick of time, he said conditions currently were “nothing to write home about. But it could be a lot worse … lots of guys are short of feed, and there was no carry over after last year.”
However, as someone who is 50 years old, Smith said he did not remember a series of weather events like the odd pattern that has occurred in his area this year. “And maybe I don’t have as much of an experience as some of the older guys. I wish my dad was around to ask him how this relates with his experience.”
Smith has read news reports on how river levels in Europe have declined this year, not to mention the drought linked to climate change affecting places in North America such as Lake Mead and the Colorado River in the U.S. “So, I definitely think we’re in a hotter, drier cycle right now … so that is a concerning trend that I hope reverses itself.”
