Dry, cracked surface soil -- Photo Courtesy Ross Lavigne

By Darren Rathwell

MAKE OR BREAK FOR SOME

Many Southern Alberta farms in desperate need of moisture

Feb 18, 2022 | 11:27 AM

MEDICINE HAT, AB. – Local farmers and officials say conditions are so dry following this winter’s parched months and last year’s drought, 2022 could be a make-or-break year for some producers.

“The subsoil moisture is gone. It’s totally dry. It’s really so hard you can hardly dig a post hole now,” local farmer Harold Fieldberg said.

Fieldberg has been farming south of Medicine Hat for dozens of years, but he says this is one of the driest times in his memory.

In 2021, hot weather and low moisture lead to below-average yields in Alberta. Fieldberg says his organic hemp operation can withstand another dry spring through cutbacks if needed, but he says not everyone will be so lucky.

“If we don’t get adequate rain by the first of June there will be a lot of young farmers and some old farmers will have to give up their possessions and go bankrupt.”

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Statistics from Alberta Agriculture show precipitation over the past year in the Medicine Hat area is down by about half its normal total, a drop that happens less than once in 25 years.

Cypress County councillor Dustin Vossler says about 20 centimetres of wet snow is needed.

“Schuler, Hilda, Irvine and everywhere in dryland parts of the county.. they’ve had tough years and they need a year to pull them out or they’re going to be in tough shape.”

And it would mean a long row of bad luck for some.

“This will be year number five now of having a poor growing season,” Vossler said, “2020 was decent for a start but then there was so much heat that started burning the crops off.”

Weather experts are offering some hope for the coming months with a warming trend possibly coming in April.

“And that should help thaw out the ground and set the stage for us to put moisture in the ground when we see the precipitation coming on stronger,” said Drew Lerner, agricultural meteorologist with World Weather Inc.

Vossler, however, is concerned the moisture could fall at the wrong time.

“Since our growing season starts end of April, beginning to June mark, if we don’t have moisture to start off the crops we’re still not getting anything out of it,” Vossler said, adding, “I sure pray that it rains, and I hope that everyone else does too.”