Farmers were drenched out there this summer in most of the capital region, reports Alberta Agriculture – unless they were in Sturgeon County, where they were merely damp.
Despite the many thunderstorms and nightly showers that happened this summer, Alberta Agriculture soil moisture specialist Ralph Wright says Sturgeon County was actually pretty normal when it came to precipitation for July to August, with some 140 to 160 millimetres of rain falling compared to the historic average of 150 to 165. The St. Albert Research Station (which is just north of St. Albert) recorded just 47 millimetres of rain in August, which was actually slightly below average (60-70 millimetres).
“Almost the entire county is in the near-normal range,” Wright said.
Contrast that with Parkland, Barrhead, Westlock, and Lac Ste Anne counties, parts of which were at less-than-once-in-50 year highs for wetness due to that huge storm back on Aug. 22. The county is sort of an “isle of normalness” by comparison, Wright said.
We were very lucky in that we were right on the edge of that dump, said André Montpetit of Sturgeon Valley Fertilizer.
“There are farmers up there (in Westlock) that got seven inches, and we got away with one.”
Wright noted that September and October were very important months for soil moisture recharge, so these rains put us in a great position for next spring. Most of the county was now in the near normal range on that front.
But don’t bank on that for next year yet, Montpetit said – if we don’t get much snow cover, all that moisture will be gone by spring.
Frequent rains are an annoyance to farmers at this point since they delay harvesting and reduce the amount of heat and daylight available to dry crops, Montpetit said. Still, many farmers just need three weeks of clear weather to get their crops in the bin.
Wright said weather records suggest that farmers may see some light frost in central Alberta in the next week, with a 16 per cent chance of 0 C temperatures around the St. Albert weather station by Sept. 9. We typically see more severe frost (-3 C) in this region by Sept. 16 once every 10 years.
Wright’s provincial moisture reports are available at agriculture.alberta.ca.
Canada and China have called a time-out on a new trade rule that could, if implemented, bar Canadian canola from China.
China was set to bring in new rules on Sept. 1 that would have required canola imports to contain less than one per cent dockage (which refers to non-canola seed elements such as weed seeds and plant stems).
This change alarmed Canadian canola producers, who said Canada’s canola would be barred from China under this rule as its grain system didn’t have the cleaning capacity to meet it. Some 40 per cent of Canada’s canola exports (worth about $2 billion) go to China.
China has said the rule is meant to prevent the transmission of the canola disease blackleg. Canada has said the change is unjustified, citing research showing that it would not reduce the risk of transmission.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Wednesday that Canada and China had agreed to put the new rule on hold pending further talks.
Greg Sears, chair of the Alberta Canola Producers Commission, said he was happy to hear this news, as it meant canola crops would continue to be sold under the current 2.5 per cent dockage rules. Still, he was cautious about the future.
“We don’t really have any information on where any long-term agreements are heading at this point,” he said, so Canadian producers aren’t in the clear yet.
Alberta farmers produced about five million tonnes of canola last year, much of which was exported to China.
