Farmers in the province are hoping that a break in the wet weather comes sooner rather than later.

On August 7, just after three in the afternoon, Lac Ste. Anne County posted on its Facebook page that it was officially declaring a State of Agricultural Disaster. The post stated that the “volume and frequency of precipitation in 2019 has caused incorrigible damage to the crops within the municipality.” The post continued to say that though the degree of damage varies through the county, almost all crops have been affected negatively by the current moisture conditions one way or another.

Adding to the seriousness of the situation is the fact that producers have also been unable to harvest livestock feed. The high rainfall and humidity have left fields waterlogged and inaccessible. Inventory that has been harvested is very limited and is in poor condition which means that its value is degraded and there are higher odds of storage issues due to the wetness.

The Agriculture Financial Services Corporation puts out a regular crop report that rates the conditions of specific crops being farmed regionally within the province. As of July 30, 2019, only 55 per cent of all crops in the North West are in good to excellent condition. The North West Region consists of Barrhead, Edmonton, Leduc, Drayton Valley, and Athabasca. Overall, crop conditions are below the five-year average by 11 per cent. Fifteen per cent of the first cut dryland hay is reported as completed and it is estimated that the yield is 1.6 ton per acre. Quality wise, 34 per cent is considered poor, 56 per cent is fair and only 10 per cent is considered good and excellent. The soil moisture ratings for the surface is, not surprisingly, rated at 34 per cent excessive.

On Thursday, August 1, Lac Ste. Anne County sent representatives from the Agriculture Services and Fire Services departments on an aerial tour of the county to properly survey the flooding. As mentioned on the county website (www.lsa.ca), the flights allowed the two departments to “identify potential blockage issues affecting agricultural land.” Prior to the tour, it was speculated that the beaver dams and the Alberta Environment-managed weir at the mouth of the Sturgeon River were contributing factors to the overland flooding issues, but it was determined that they are not.

Don Kurach, a retired hobby farmer west of Edmonton in Parkland County, was interviewed by Global News on August 2 and said that his crop has been ready to cut since the end of June/beginning of July. “In the whole month of July, there hasn’t been, outside of Stony Plain, two days where there hasn’t been some rain. In order to get our crop off, you basically need to cut it and let it dry. It takes about three days to dry and then you can bale it.” With the wet weather making it impossible to harvest, his crop is losing nutritional value with each passing day.

Normally, farmers would get two cuts in the growing season, but it takes roughly 45 days to regrow the hay before it can be cut again. Should a stretch of dry weather allow them to cut and bale the hay, it would mean they would have to wait until the middle of September to cut and bale the second harvest. Kurach told Global News that it would likely be too late by that point. Since only 15 per cent of the first cut of dryland hay is completed, that means that an overwhelming majority of the farmers in the North West region have been unable to cut theirs.

As for Lac Ste. Anne County, it isn’t known as of this writing what will happen now that they have declared the State of Agricultural Disaster. The provincial government has a disaster recovery program in place which can be of financial assistance in the event of uninsurable loss and damage caused by disasters. Here’s to hoping the forecast can give everyone a break.