EDMONTON – Alberta agriculture minister Shirley McClellan will bring forward a drought relief package within two weeks.
“We know that we’re going to have to deal with a situation that has reached emergency proportions – it’s not disastrous proportions,” premier Ralph Klein told reporters in Calgary May 25.
The premier would not offer details on the package, which is expected to help farmers with losses on forage, grain and uninsured crops.
“There is definitely going to be a draw on government coffers, without doubt,” Klein said.
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“What the exact dollar figure is I can’t tell you at this point, but obviously there will be financial resources to help those farmers in dire straits. What I can say to those farmers? Not much other than we will be there to help.”
The widespread arid conditions affecting 90 percent of Alberta’s 50 million acres of forage and grain land stem from back-to-back bone-dry years, said Ray Keller, a water supply expert with Alberta Environment.
The lack of normal snowfall and rainfall set records in Edmonton and Red Deer, which have received about 200 millimetres less precipitation than normal.
The conditions are the worst in southern Alberta, where about one million acres of farmland depend on irrigation. Nick Nimchuk, a meteorologist with Alberta Sustainable Resource Development, said the pro-vince has kept farmers abreast of the water shortage for months.
“While conditions are harsh, water is available in storage. We started making contingency plans back in November,” Nimchuk said.
“Farmers have received newsletters to update them about the water situation so they have had the opportunity to make their own business decisions.”
Lloyd Andruchow, a field management specialist with Alberta Agriculture, said many farmers have switched from traditional cash crops such as sugar beets and potatoes to cereal crops that can be planted in the drier conditions.
“What we are seeing is there has been at least a 25 percent drop in the sugar beet acres this year.”
In central Alberta’s grain belt, low soil moisture levels have also forced farmers to reconsider crop choices, Andruchow said.
“This year, farmers have delayed the seeding of canola because of a lack of moisture in the top two inches of the soil for germination,” he said.
“A lot of people have decided to go to other crops like wheat and barley that can be seeded deeper, at the three-inch level, and still get germination.”
Forecasters believe June, which is traditionally the province’s wettest month, will deliver an average rainfall, but Keller cautioned some farmers may be left high and dry by Mother Nature.
“When you get into these types of patterns, they tend to persist,” he said. “It’s now a question of how long does it persist and where does it persist.”
Even with a wet June, the parched conditions have already forced tough decisions on
Alberta’s cattle industry, which accounts for 66 percent of the province’s farm cash receipts.
The government officials only confirmed what Tony Rustemeier already saw on his parched 780 acres north of Edmonton.
“It is certainly about as dry as I can remember,” said Rustemeier, 50, who has farmed for almost 30 years.
“Farmers have already sustained some damage. The lack of snow cover has caused some winterkill in the legumes, such as alfalfa.”
Rustemeier initially planned to contract out his land to seed a proprietary variety of canola. With low soil moisture and 50 head of cattle to feed, Rustemeier switched to oats.
“Everybody changed their seeding intentions as quickly as they changed their socks,” he said.
