County farmers are celebrating this week now that some long-awaited rains have saved this year’s harvest.
The skies opened up over the St. Albert region last weekend, dropping the first load of rain that the county has seen in months.
Environment Canada’s Blatchford station has recorded about 78 millimetres of rain since the middle of last week, said Edmonton meteorologist Dan Kulak. As the average for all of May is 46, we got more than a month’s worth of rain in a week.
“It’s been a little bit wet,” he said, dryly.
This has been the biggest rain event of the year so far, with just 10 mm falling in April and 14 in March, Kulak said. The cause was a “cold blow” of cold, wet air from the Pacific that also dropped snow on Calgary (due to its elevation).
“The middle of May has to be the time where we have to be prepared for pretty much anything.”
Tam Andersen of Prairie Gardens and Adventure Farm said that she was planting strawberries into dust a few weeks ago and was looking to invest in drip irrigation. Now, she’s got about three inches of wet in her rain gauge.
“It’s the proverbial million-dollar rain,” she said.
“It’s going to make the difference between no crop and having a wonderful crop.”
Walter Tappauf, who farms about 18,000 acres west of St. Albert, called last weekend’s rain a “lifesaver.” Most crops had germinated fine, but they had no subsurface moisture to draw upon for growth.
“You’d have no crop if we didn’t get rain.”
This rain will be vital for ranchers, who otherwise would be looking at another hay shortage without it, Tappauf said. It should also help with weed control, as it will cause all the weeds to sprout at once, making them easy to spray.
But this region still has to make up for some significant soil moisture deficits, Kulak noted. The AgroClimatic Information Service suggests that, as of May 16, soil moisture reserves in Sturgeon County were at anywhere from three- to six- (moderate) to 25- to 50- (extreme) year lows, with parts of Parkland County being drier than they’ve been in 50 years.
Ideally, farmers will get about two to three inches of rain per month during the next two months followed by a warm and dry fall, Tappauf said. Cheap fuel and the low Canadian dollar are working in farmers’ favour as well.
“Things are still looking pretty positive.”
The short-range forecast suggests that this region should see more rain for the rest of the week, Kulak said. Snow is also possible at higher elevations.
“Be prepared for winter conditions in this province for most months of the year,” he joked.
