Stubborn heat stunts southern Alberta crops by up to 20%: officials

Persistent hot, dry weather has reduced crop yields in southern Alberta by up to 20 per cent of long-term average production, say provincial officials.

That’s led farmers to begin harvesting several weeks earlier than usual in an effort to salvage crops wilted under a July sun that wouldn’t let up, said Neil Whatley, a crop specialist with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry.

“The difference this year is the relentless high heat ... we’ve had a decrease of water in the soil and it’s impacted crop yield,” said Whatley, who travels the province inspecting agriculture.

In a crop report released Friday, only 34.6 per cent of southern Alberta’s crop conditions were rated as good or excellent, while 79 per cent of the subsurface moisture ratings were listed as poor or fair.

While the situation in the province’s north and northwest is considerably better, farms in many parts of southern Alberta are facing a dismal situation, said Whatley.

“A 15 per cent decrease is significant when you have payments to make, but it’s not a writeoff,” he said. “But I don’t want to underestimate the dire conditions of farmers in the south.”

Even with the lower precipitation levels in June, farmers would have still managed average yields, said Whatley, but that was sabotaged by the persistently high temperatures that followed.

Some producers, he said, have taken to feeding substandard crops to livestock.

The woes besetting the province’s farmers are a product of what Environment Canada said is shaping up to be the hottest summer recorded in Calgary when averaging temperatures from May through July.

It’s also led to fire bans throughout much of the province’s south and prohibitions on the use of off-road recreational vehicles in a bid to head off wildfires similar to those ravaging B.C.

The growing conditions are the toughest Nanton-area farmerrancher Bob Lowe has seen in at least a decade.

“Our pastures here are burned up and we’re going to market early,” said Lowe, chairman of the Alberta Beef Producers.

An initial hay harvest was a good one, but the hot, dry weather has wiped out a second one, he said.

Unrelenting wind and heat has also wreaked havoc on his crops, said Lowe, particularly canola and peas.

“The peas are half of what we’d come to expect,” he said.

“We’re harvesting three weeks earlier than normal — that tells you how hot and dry it’s been.”

He said other farmers in the region are faring far worse than he is.