Local farmers are all smiles this summer as great weather has brought them a bumper crop.
The Canadian Wheat Board predicted a dismal fall for most grain farmers during its end-of-the-crop-year press conference Friday. Record rains had swamped the Prairies in recent months, knocking some 10.5 million acres out of commission, as they were too wet to plant.
This could be a trying time for many farm families, said Allen Oberg, the board's chair and a farmer near Forestburg (southeast of Edmonton). "Farmers are resilient, but when you can't even get the seed into the ground, it's devastating."
North and south Alberta have also been hit by bad weather, according to Alberta Agriculture. Parts of the Peace Region were at 25-year lows for rain last month, while Red Deer and Lloydminster were at 25-year highs.
It's too wet down south, too dry up north, and just right here in Sturgeon County, said John Bocock, who farms north of St. Albert. "Since the drought of 2002, this is the first time we've had normal or slightly above normal moisture in this area," he noted. "The crops are looking better than they have in a long time."
And prices are on their way up, noted Robert Tappauf, who farms 15,000 acres near St. Albert. "We've got higher prices and potentially high yields," he said. "This area here has the potential for the best crop in 10 to 15 years."
Year in review
Last year was fantastic for wheat and barley sales, said Ian White, president of the Canadian Wheat Board, with some $4.8 billion earned for farmers — the third-highest return this decade. Farmers harvested some 33.2 million tonnes of wheat and barley last year and exported some 18.8 million tonnes of it, their biggest export since 1999.
But massive floods in Saskatchewan and Manitoba mean this year will be very different, he continued. Harvest volumes would plunge by about a fifth to just 26 million tonnes of wheat and barley, the lowest since the drought of 2002. Wheat prices would hover around $6.12 a bushel, compared to about $8 last year, due to a glut of supply. But that could soon change as prices had jumped about a third on some markets in the last month.
Canola is in a similar situation, said Ward Toma of the Alberta Canola Producers Commission: great in the county, terrible elsewhere.
It may have sprouted a few weeks late, Toma said, but rain followed by a week of heat has let much of Central Alberta's crop catch up. "You'll see gorgeous, big, bushy, wonderful canola fields."
The Peace region is in its third year of drought and will be lucky to get even an average crop. "If you're in the Peace, things are looking pretty crappy right now."
Frost fears
Last year's crop was saved by an extra warm, frost-free fall, Oberg said, and many farmers are hoping for more of the same this year.
There have been no serious bug problems in Sturgeon this summer, Tappauf said, so the only thing he's worried about so far is the weather. "The crops are a little further behind than they were last year," he said, which means they could get knocked down by an early frost. Recent hot, humid weather could also bring crop-smashing hailstones.
Other than that, though, Tappauf said he's prepping his gear and looking forward to a great early September harvest. "It's going to be a bumper crop."
The wheat board's crop forecast can be found at www.cwb.ca.
