Southern Alberta farmers reeling from disappointing harvest

Some farmers in southern Alberta are expressing discontent with this year's harvest after a hot and dry growing season.

Despite cooler and wetter weather late in the summer, Stephen Vandervalk, who farms outside of Fort Macleod, says the damage had already been done.

"The south side of our farm, maybe about a third of the farm, got a big hail storm that came with a whole bunch of rain," Vandervalk said.

"So those crops actually turned out to be a little above average, but the other two-thirds of the farm was a wreck, or even three-quarters."

A dozen municipalities across Alberta declared agricultural disasters this summer.

While the declarations don't translate to automatic compensation for growers, they are a signal that government support is needed.

Vulcan County declared a disaster in June when 85 percent of the municipality saw extreme crop reduction.

"Due to the extreme shortfall of moisture during the early part of the growing season, the crops were, on average, quite poor," said Kelly Malmberg, director of agriculture for Vulcan County.

"There (were) a few pockets in the county that did get some rain, like small pockets. They sure don't represent the average of our county."

Farmers are already hoping to get next year's growing season back on track, hoping for fall rain to recharge the soil and a snowy winter to build up the snowpack, increasing water supply.

The province will be working with the federal government on a disaster relief initiative to provide support to impacted farmers and ranchers.

The AgriStability risk management program has also been extended to Sept. 29, help that will be badly needed if costs keep going up. 

"It's kind of frustrating, actually, because what we're seeing right now is we're buying inputs for next year and we're seeing those inputs rise in price. Especially fertilizer for some reason has decided to take off again," Vandervalk said.