'Extremely dry': Farmers in southern Alberta gear up for drought conditions
With the Lethbridge area not seeing much snow over the past few months, the dry conditions are already causing grief for some farmers.
"We had some snow fall but most of that just blew away or blew around," said James Johnson with Johnson Fresh Farms near Taber, Alta. "It’s still extremely dry."
Just weeks away from spring seeding, Johnson calls the dry conditions just another bump in the road. But there are more bumps on the road than usual this year, like the rising cost of fertilizer and gas as a result of Russia’s attack on Ukraine.
"Especially with the high input costs right now with fuel and fertilizer, I know it's probably a little bit different for the dryland guys, they're really going have to think long and hard (about) how much fertilizer they want to risk putting on their crop," said Johnson. "We’re lucky to have irrigation."
Southern Alberta experienced a large drought throughout the summer last year, with many crops wilting away in the heat.
"We’re going into this season really lacking any sub-soil moisture at all. In some areas, there will be some top moisture, and I’ve seen some reports on that, where people think they have enough to maybe germinated, but it's not enough to carry the crop on,” said Lynn Jacobson, president of the Alberta Federation of Agriculture.
Jacobson says the lack of moisture can effect more than just crops.
"There's not going to be a lot of grass for the cattle for grazing, for people with cattle, so that's going to have an effect on people with grazing leases and even their own pastures," he said. "And hay is already tight this year, so that's just going to cause another problem."
There isn't much precipitation in the long-range forecast, something Environment Canada meteorologist Alysa Pederson says has been the trend since October.
“We only had about 88.7 mm of precipitation, which is only about 63 per cent of normal,” she said.
Pederson said much of Western Canada saw a La Nina throughout the winter, which brought less precipitation.
She says cooler but drier conditions are expected throughout the spring in the Lethbridge area.
“We’re looking at a little bit below normal, but that doesn’t mean we're going to have warm weeks, or below normal weeks, kind of averaging out through the season,” Pederson said.
A map from Environment Canada. Pederson added that the past winter is in line with 2021 and 2020.
With warmer weather on the horizon, Jacobson expects crop insurance to be a hot item once again this summer.
Both Johnson and Jacobson say all they can do now is cross their fingers and hope for rain.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Spring allergy season has begun. Where is it worse in Canada?
The spring allergy season has started early in many parts of Canada, with high levels of pollen in some cities already. Experts weigh in on which areas have it worse so far this season.
'Nonsense:' Doug Ford slams lawsuits filed by Ontario school boards against social media platforms
Premier Doug Ford says that lawsuits launched by four Ontario school boards against a trio of social media platforms are “nonsense” and risk becoming a distraction to the work that really matters.
Several flight attendants from Pakistan have gone missing after landing in Canada
Multiple flight attendants from Pakistan International Airlines have abandoned their jobs and are believed to have sought asylum in Canada in the past year and a half, a spokesperson for the government-owned airline says.
Record-breaking N.B. lottery winner kept winning ticket on dresser for nearly a year
A New Brunswicker will go to bed Thursday night much richer than he was Wednesday after collecting on a winning lottery ticket he let sit on his bedroom dresser for nearly a year.
Multiple bridges in Calgary shut down for police incident
Calgary police have shut down a number of bridges into and out of the downtown core as officers deal with a distraught individual.
King Charles calls for acts of friendship in first public remarks since Kate's cancer diagnosis
King Charles III gave public remarks for Maundy Thursday, addressing the importance of acts of friendship, following his and Catherine, Princess of Wales’ cancer diagnoses.
Fallen crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in prison
Crypto entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced Thursday to 25 years in prison for a massive fraud that unravelled with the collapse of FTX, once one of the world's most popular platforms for exchanging digital currency.
A dog and a bird formed an unlikely friendship. Their separation has infuriated followers
Peggy is a stout and muscular Staffordshire bull terrier, and Molly is a magpie, an Australian bird best known for swooping on humans during breeding season, not for befriending dogs. But in an emotional video posted online, Peggy’s owners announced that the animals had been separated.
Tipping is off the table at this Toronto restaurant
A Toronto restaurant introduced a surprising new rule that reduced the cost of a meal and raised the salaries of staff.