Al Mitchell has only 15 percent of his crop seeded, but he’s done for the year.
“I quit,” said Mitchell, who had just come in from touring his saturated fields in Wandering River, about 300 kilometres north of Edmonton.
The night before it rained another two centimetres on top of already waterlogged fields.
He “mudded in” about 60 acres of crop this spring and part of that has since been drowned out.
Mitchell is not the only farmer with seeding problems this year. Alberta Agriculture estimates 600,000 to 800,000 acres that farmers planned to seed won’t get planted.
Read Also
Canola oil transloading facility opens
DP World just opened its new canola oil transload facility at the Port of Vancouver. It can ship one million tonnes of the commodity per year.
Mitchell lives in the heart of one of the hardest hit areas – between Athabasca and Lac La Biche. As well, farmers in the central Peace country near Beaverlodge can only stand by and wait for the rain to stop.
Crop statistician Wendy Boje said about one-third of the wheat and about one-fifth of the canola was never seeded in the Peace region. Farmers replaced those more lucrative crops with barley, greenfeed, silage or summerfallow.
“For the Peace region and local districts they’re certainly hard hit and there will be an impact on farming in those areas,” said Boje, of Edmonton.
Alberta agriculture minister Ed Stelmach said while it’s tough for farmers in the rain-soaked areas, there will not be any ad hoc money coming from the government.
Farmers must rely on crop insurance and the provincial government’s Farm Income Disaster Program, which covers farmers who experience a serious drop in income, said Stelmach after he met with a group of farmers from Wandering River.
Farmers can qualify for unseeded acreage coverage as part of their regular crop insurance coverage if they applied before April 30. But only 11 percent of farmers in the Athabasca-Lac La Biche area carry crop insurance.
They may be eligible for FIDP if the margin between their agricultural income and eligible expenses suffers more than a 30 percent drop in one year compared with the previous three-year average.
FIDP may also be triggered based on a lack of investment, said Stelmach, who plans to run a series of trials on income from farms in the affected area to see if the program kicks in.
“We want to make sure the program responds to the needs of farmers,” he said.
Local MLAs will make a pitch for disaster relief at an upcoming caucus meeting and Stelmach plans to look into federal Liberal election promises of $70 per acre disaster coverage in Manitoba from flooding.
“It created a bit of a desire here,” he said.
