Snow means ‘abysmal’ harvest conditions for farmers
No one is lamenting the September snowfall more than Alberta wheat and barley farmers.
Humphrey Banack of the Alberta Federation of Agriculture says farmers in southern Alberta have done “exceptionally well” with their harvest but farmers in the Edmonton area, and into northern Alberta, still have plenty of crop out on the fields and the early arrival of winter conditions does not bode well for harvest season.
“This snow has the possibility of pushing the crops to the ground, which makes harvest absolutely abysmal,” said Banack, who operates a farm near Camrose.
“Southern Alberta is ahead of their typical harvest, and even some areas in central Alberta, but this is going to put the other 80 or 85 per cent that we have out there at high risk.”
Banack says he was hoping to get harvest done by Thanksgiving on Oct. 8 but now he’s not so sure.
“On our particular farm we were looking forward to an easy harvest, but this weather is going to take ‘easy’ out of the equation pretty quickly,” Banack said.
After a hot, dry summer saw average water levels drop from the typical 11 inches to three to four inches, farmers now have to contend with freezing temperatures and snowfall flattening their yields even further.
Banack said there’s no doubt the quality of yields will suffer.
“It could be very devastating for some producers if we see this carry on and we go from a milling-quality wheat to a feed-quality wheat,” Banack said. “It absolutely makes our farms tough to make any black in the bottom line — it will be a big red.”
Harry Brook is a crop specialist with Alberta Agriculture’s Ag-Info centre, based in Stettler.
His biggest concern with snowfall is the white stuff pushing crops flat to the ground, making them tough to harvest. Even if wheat has already been swathed, another heavy dump means the crop takes a long time to dry.
That means potential for crop losses in terms of both quality and quantity.
“As the clocks ticks along and we get later and later in the season, there’s less daylight, less heat from the sun, and the concern is, is this stuff going to dry in time for me to harvest it and put it in the bin?” he said.
Brook isn’t overly worried — he’s more resigned than anything.
“Septembers tend to be unsettled weather with frequent moisture events that prevent harvesting so it’s like, ‘Aw geez,’” he said
Moisture late in the season isn’t all bad, at least not for beef and grass producers.
Anything that helps put some water in the ground is good to help the grass grow in the spring and mitigate the amount of feed cattle will rely on later in the season.
“It’s a double-edged sword. It’s going to hold up our harvest, right now, and that’s very important but we have to be mindful to the future,” Banack said. “But for the grain producers, we’d like to just put it off and get the harvest in, and then we can see a good rainfall to start to rebuild moisture for the spring.”