Harvest halfway point showing average yields in Edmonton region

Many Alberta farmers are expecting to see a smaller return on their investment this year because of dry conditions and lower crop prices.

It seems the damage done to crops by a dry spring and early summer was offset by a wet and cool July, according to farmers in the Edmonton region who are halfway through harvest.

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The latest provincial crop report also estimates overall wheat and canola quality is above average, although durum, oats, and dry peas are rating below their five- and 10-year averages, variations that “reflect heat and moisture stress during grain fill and possibly the impact of the Aug. 20 hailstorm” in western south and central Alberta, says the agriculture ministry.

“In June, we had doubts as to whether we would get even average yields this year, but the rain through July really saved our bacon,” Humphrey Banack, who is part of a family farm in the Camrose area, told CTV News Edmonton on Wednesday.

“(My brother said) we should maybe plow these down or reseed them because they just looked terrible. But today they look good. Water is an amazing thing.”

The Banack family has harvested about half of their some 7,000 acres. Their wheat and barley yields were about average. The canola, which they are just starting to take off, also looks perhaps a hair better than average, too.

The farm is on pace with others in the region. According to Alberta Agriculture and Irrigation, most cereals have been completed in the Barrhead-Edmonton-Leduc-Drayton Valley-Athabasca area. As of Sept. 9, 41 per cent of all crops had been harvested.

But hot and dry weather has left fields dry, with a third of moisture levels in the area rating poor and the rest between fair and good.

Because of this, pasture and hay growth has declined. Again, roughly one third of pasture conditions in the region were rated poor, 45 per cent fair and 19 per cent good.

This is the greatest concern in Westlock County, which declared an agricultural disaster on Aug. 12.

“We’re already supplementing feed for (our cattle). We have been for the last month or so. The hay that we thought we were going to have secured for the winter months, we actually have already been feeding that,” said county reeve and beef producer Christine Wiese.

“And that’s not coming back. We had grasshopper infestations and then the drought here. We’re going to need to either reduce herd sizes or start feeding early.”

Pasture and hay conditions are also not expected to recover this year in Greenview County, either. That county, largely situated north of Jasper National Park, declared an agricultural disaster in July.

The dryness has raised concerns about grain yield and quality there, but warm weather means harvest has moved quickly and was 38 per cent complete as of Wednesday.

The emergency declarations in both counties are meant to signal how poor conditions are.

“It’s important for all levels of government to understand the impact.… it’s felt regionally,” Wiese said.

Even Banack, with average yields and lower commodity prices, is expecting to adjust his spending for next year.

“It just makes for tighter times. You know, we may not be buying the equipment we have in the past, or land purchases, things like that.”

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Marek Tkach