Southern Alberta cattle and grain farmers pleased with July rainfall amounts

Farmers in southern Alberta are thankful for an above-average July rainfall. Now, they hope for sunshine to help finish the plants for harvest.

Farmers southeast of Calgary say the recent rain is the boost their crops badly needed after multiple years of drought-like conditions.

“Last year, we had a very good start, and then in July, everything just went south,” said farmer Glen Gateman, who operates south of Mossleigh, Alta.

Gateman seeds close to 2,225 hectares and has about 300 head of cattle.

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He says his pasture is finally starting to recover after being extremely dry for a few seasons.

“It’s been a real turnaround. This time last year – last July – it was 35 above pretty much every day, virtually no rain here anyway, and this year it’s just a complete change.”

Already this month, the area has recorded more than 130 millimeters of precipitation.

This year, Gateman has planted canola, winter wheat, malt barley and a variety of peas.

“They all need moisture at different times,” he said. “But canola just loves this because canola likes cool nights and cool days too – and moisture just keeps it flowering, and you need flowers to make the pods (to harvest).”

Leroy Newman, who farms closer to Blackie, Alta., says his soil was cracking in mid-June because of how dry they were.

“It’s a game changer,” he said. “We are actually replenishing the subsoil now, and it’s so encouraging because of the droughts and how dry it was until June 21 this year.”

Newman says consistently gentle rain over days is better for crops than large amounts of moisture from a fast-moving thunderstorm because the precipitation has time to absorb into the soil, not just run off into low lying areas of a field.

“It would be nice if we get back to our heat to get this crop finishing off,” he said. “Our biggest worry right now is thunderstorms and hailstorms – and they’re going to be rampant if we get some heat.”

Gateman says for some farmers who’ve seeded winter wheat and peas, harvest starts at the beginning of August.

“I’m just hoping that the hail can stay away this year, and the weather can improve a bit, because it’s pretty tough to get a crop off if it’s raining,” he said.

“Mother Nature – you just can’t argue with her – she’s going to do what she’s going to do, but it’s just nice to see that it can still rain.”

Farmers say that this season’s July rainfall may help them when it comes time to plant next spring, by replenishing the much-needed ground water table.