Grasshoppers, dry conditions creating agricultural emergency in parts of Alberta

Walking through Del Pratt's backyard north of Oyen, Alta., isn't for the faint of heart these days, as a cloud of grasshoppers bursts from the ground at step.

If your shirt is not tucked in, Pratt warns they crawl inside your clothing.

He keeps a shop vacuum at his back door to suck up the insects that manage to crawl into his house every time someone opens the door.

Pratt has been trying to start an orchard in his backyard for several years, but he says the grasshoppers have destroyed it.

"There's not an apple tree in it with leaves now," he told CTV News. "The apples are done."

Pratt says his apple trees were green and leafy until about two weeks ago when the "hoppers" came.

"They were thick," he said.

The same for his pear trees and a Caragana.

Once the leaves were stripped, the grasshoppers started eating the bark.

By Wednesday, they were chowing down on the few apples left hanging on the tree.

While his backyard orchard is a hobby, wheat fields are a farmer's livelihood.   

A plague of grasshoppers is not the only problem facing famers in the eastern part of Alberta, a section of prairie known as the ‘Special Area.'  

It surrounds the communities of Consort, Empress, Hanna, Oyen, Veteran and Youngstown, and is also experiencing a multi-year drought.

"We haven't had spring moisture here in April for nine years," said Pratt. 

This year, that moisture deficit has farmers hitting a wall.

Crops that have come up and eluded the grasshoppers are stunted, producing such a small yield that farmers would lose money starting up a combine to harvest them.

On Wednesday, the Special Areas Board, which represents farmers and ranchers in the area, declared an agricultural disaster.

It's only the second time in the board's history it's taken that step.

"Not only do you have the challenges of drought, but now you've also got the challenges with the grasshoppers coming in and decimating many acres of crops throughout the area," said Jordon Christianson, chair of the Special Areas Board.

"It gets discouraging."

While a declaration of an agricultural disaster does not immediately unlock any extra government funding, Christianson hopes politicians both federally and provincially  will become more aware of the dire circumstances many eastern Alberta farmers are facing.               

"Where we use that declaration of an agricultural disaster, it is really public awareness," Christianson said.

Melvin Bingeman lives 20 kilometres from Pratt's farm, and has called the Special Areas home all his life.

He's farmed the land where he grew up for the last 60 years. 

Bingeman says he's never seen a year as bad as the one farmers are facing now. 

"We will see a tremendous number of farmers go bankrupt this year because of the way it is with the drought," he said.

He says he's fortunate to be semi-retired, and not carrying large farm debt, but he worries what will happen if younger farmers are forced off their land.

"It's a very big deal, because, how do you reinvest? If you are leaving, you lose everything you have invested in. How  would you buy land and equipment to stat over again? There's just no way."

Ranchers are also hit hard by the area drought. Pastureland is barren, and crops they were raising for silage are gone. Most are reducing their herds, some by as much as 50 percent. 

Kresten Jorgenson's family will be culling their herd.  Where it once numbered 400 he expects it to be down to 270 head by the end of the year.

"The problem is just trying to get enough feed, let alone being able to afford it.  I just  don't know if it's can be enough around," said Jorenson 

Every farmer CTV News spoke with in the Special Areas said they will be making a crop insurance claim this year.  

The Agriculture Financial Services Corporation recently adjusted the threshold at which it will accept a claim for agricultural losses, making it easier for farmers to make a claim.