Gordon Dengler stood outside on the morning of July 16 as five millimetres of rain fell on him and his parched crops.
It was an unusual occurrence this summer.
The precipitation was the first since the same amount fell May 29.
“I stayed out in the rain,” said the farmer from Young, Sask. “I love it.”
But it wasn’t enough and it came too late.
Near Imperial, Sask., Earl Baht’s rain gauge measured 43 millimetres.
His neighbour has already worked up a field of peas assessed by Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corporation as having a potential yield of one bushel per acre. It is adjacent to a field that last year yielded 50.
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“Nobody close to us has had any amount of rain until last night,” Baht said July 16.
Parts of central Saskatchewan received more than 50 millimetres of rain last weekend, while southern regions got even more.
“We got our usual rain – six drops,” Dengler said.
The moisture may help fill some crops but will not avert a disaster, he said.
“If somebody doesn’t do something, we’re going to have a hell of a pile of people going under,” Dengler said.
In Alberta, dry conditions continued in the southeast.
“It’s pretty near a wreck here,” said Dave Spencer, cereal and oilseed specialist in Medicine Hat.
Crops are burning up, and producers are deciding whether they should cut their crops for greenfeed or let their cattle graze them.
These conditions extend into Saskatchewan’s west side.
The Kindersley area was still without significant moisture despite showers last weekend.
Extension agrologist Patty Robertshaw said the showers were spotty, and areas including Leader, Eatonia, Eston and Kyle received hail along with a good dump of rain.
“It’s still a drought,” she said. “Cereal stubble crops in particular are suffering really bad. Pea crops are very short.”
Nearly 2,000 farmers have called Saskatchewan crop insurance requesting an assessment of their crops. They want to know if the crops are worth harvesting or if they should cut them for greenfeed or allow cattle to graze them.
Cam Swan, executive manager of field operations, said there had been 1,982 requests as of July 13; 1,604 of them were from the western region.
He said adjusters are under pressure to cope with these claims as well as about 3,600 hail claims, but he said there are some options.
“If we can’t get out there very quickly, within a day or so, they are able to leave checkstrips,” Swan said. “We don’t like to leave checkstrips too long because lots of things can happen. We have moved adjusters around and in all likelihood will have to move some more.”
Swan said crop insurance tries to avoid writing crops off because there is usually some value there.
That position has the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan concerned. Vice-president Evans Thordarson said the cost of writing crops off is less than the cost of losing the cow herd.
Hay crops and pastures are suffering in Alberta and Saskatchewan, and that is putting pressure on feed prices.
Writing off crops and letting cattle graze is probably the cheapest option, Thordarson said.
