Widespread drought causing shortage of feed, water
REGINA This year’s drought has left cattle farmer Larry Grant short on feed and anticipating he’ll have to sell two-thirds of his herd to make it through the winter.
“In my area, grass is in short supply, water is in a shorter supply and winter feed is in even shorter supply.
“I don’t know of anybody in my area that has enough feed for winter,” said Grant, who has about 300 cattle on his farm north of Val Marie.
“I don’t know when the last time (was) I saw it this dry, but it would be an extremely longtime ago.”
One of his hay fields produced 210 hay bales last year, but only 32 this year. This low production has left Grant with only about a third of the hay he needs to feed his cattle through the colder months.
And buying hay is not an attractive option. “The cost of feed is astronomical, and in some cases the freight to get it to your place is more than the hay,” he said. “If I don’t get any feed from somewhere, I’m going to have to sell probably 200, 250 (cattle).” On top of that, he said he’ll be selling all his calves.
But with the drought so widespread and a lot of producers looking to sell, Grant said cattle prices won’t be very good when he tries to sell in the fall, leaving him to buy back his herd in future years at higher prices than he sold them for.
Grant estimates it will take him six to 10 years to rebuild his herd to what it is now, if he sells as many cattle as he is anticipating.
“When you’ve got a cow herd that you’ve spent years developing and then you have to sell half to twothirds of it to be able to go through the winter, you don’t just go out and buy that quality of cow next year,” he said.
Right now, water shortages are also a concern, and Grant said he’s been rotating pastures as the water runs out. He’s also been using a solar pump to move water from more plentiful holes to troughs, making the water stretch farther.
“Some water holes didn’t fill up last year, and then it’s even been hotter this year than last year,” he said.
“A lot of watering holes are running low right now, and we’re only a touch over halfway into the grazing season. If we don’t get some run-off and some snow this winter, it’s going to be dire straights next year.”
Crops aren’t holding up well in the drought, either, said Jay Meyer, executive director of the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities (SARM).
Between the lack of moisture and recent heat, crop yield and quality are lower than normal.
“Some of the (producers), especially the ones that were affected by drought last year, are going to be under a lot of duress because, I mean, they probably have some bills outstanding from last year and it’s going to hit them financially again this year,” said Meyer.
There is some assistance for producers through the Canadian Agriculture Partnership — a federal program aimed at strengthening agriculture — but Meyer is concerned neither this nor crop insurance will be enough.
“We know that the guarantee for those (insurance) programs isn’t really high enough per acre to really carry producers over,” he said.
SARM has been in touch with the Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corp. to discuss programs, said Meyer, and is hoping to have them “enhanced” for next year. The organization is also meeting with Lawrence Macaulay, the federal minister of agriculture, in October to discuss the severity of Saskatchewan’s situation and any potential federal help to get producers back on their feet.
The most recent provincial crop report said cropland topsoil moisture conditions are rated as 25 per cent very short, 44 per cent short and 31 per cent adequate.