By Scott Roblin

Summer drought drying up pasture land for ranchers

Aug 8, 2018 | 6:38 PM

CYPRESS COUNTY, AB – Ranching is a way of life for many local families, but increasingly dry conditions is making that lifestyle more difficult.

Weeks of scorching temperatures and little rain in this corner of the province is leaving some pastures barren, meaning less grass for livestock to eat.

Towerview Ranch northwest of Redcliff is one of those operations that has been bone dry, as owner Nolan Pahl is scrambling to provide enough food for his 350 cows.

“You try and keep the land in the best condition you can,” said Pahl. “And, when it comes to spring and we get no rain, it just doesn’t come back. So, they’re eating it year after year, and it’s getting worse and worse.”

The haying season hasn’t produced the results Pahl was hoping for, meaning he has had to dip into his wallet to feed his livestock.

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“We pretty well bought all of our feed, so that makes you pretty broke,” he said. “I mean, trying to keep the cows alive with your inventory, if you got to buy it, you got to buy it.”

According to the province, soil moisture levels are at their lowest point in up to 50 years in some parts of southern Alberta.

Pasture growth in the south area of the province has been rated as only 28.4 percent good or excellent, while the Medicine Hat area has had less than 90 millimetres of rain over the last 90 days.

Alberta Agriculture crop specialist Mark Cutts said these types of prolonged drought conditions aren’t very common at all.

“Medicine Hat would come in anywhere from low to some portions that are considered to be extremely low,” said Cutts. “So, that’s basically a fairly rare event in terms of how frequently that happens in a given area.”

Despite that however, Pahl said they’ve had to adapt to extremely dry conditions over the last few years.

“Most operations could probably survive one year like this,” he said. “But, we’re going into our third year and I’m sure everybody is feeling it.”

Many people attending this week’s cattle sale at the Medicine Hat Feeding Company are feeling the same way.

Local rancher Delvin Stuber said plenty of livestock is being sold per-maturely by producers in the hopes of preserving some of the grassland.

“The dry cows are,” said Stuber. “They’re not holding them, they just get rid of them and keep the grass for the pairs.”

Limited rainfall is also sparking concerns of another kind for farmers and ranchers, as Pahl said you don’t have to look back further than last year to see southern Alberta’s wildfire risk.

“We already have no grass and if there’s a prairie fire, we’re going to be really worse off,” he said. “So, hopefully that doesn’t happen, knock on wood.”

Cypress County has implemented fire restrictions over the last few weeks to cut down on the risk of wildfires, including a ban on burning barrels.

Pahl said the summer has been a write off for many ranchers in his community and added all they can do now is hope for the best this fall.

“Hopefully, this calf run in the fall is strong, the calf market might be strong,” he said. “And, that would help us out too you know, just hoping.”

Environment Canada is predicting a 40 percent chance of showers on Sunday, which could potentially provide some relief.