By Curtis Galbraith

County of Grande Prairie Council hoping agricultural disaster declaration makes federal/provincial governments take notice

Jul 27, 2021 | 3:50 PM

GRANDE PRAIRIE, Alta. – A member of County of Grande Prairie Council says Monday’s declaration of an agricultural disaster is meant to show the severe effects of the drought.

Councillor and Ag. Service Board chair Corey Beck says they are hoping the federal and provincial governments take notice.

“They’re the ones that hold the disaster funding programs and the emergency funding programs when it comes to agriculture. They need to know the type of situation that we’re in in the Peace Country here, specifically in the County of Grande Prairie.”

Beck says they have heard that provincial and federal officials have been talking about help under AgriRecovery but “nothing is set in stone yet.”

Beck is also a cattle producer and adds ranchers have been able to get one-eighth to one-quarter of the hay bales they usually get.

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“We’re probably going to see a de-population of the cattle herd just because securing that winter feed is becoming challenging. We grow, in the north typically, cool-season grasses. Once we hit the weeks of plus-40-degree weather we were dealing with, those grasses shut down.”

Beck says ranchers are also running out of grazing and there has already been a 25 to 30 per cent drop in cow prices.

He adds some canola crops show potential yields of 10 to 15 bushels per acre which would not sell for enough to cover the cost of growing it.

Beck says the window to salvage some crops for livestock feed is closing.

“They could be silaged. They could be baled. There are some of those opportunities but if crop insurance doesn’t allow us to do that, if they’re not going to get a crop insurance payout, they’re not going to allow a cattle guy to come in and cut it and bale it, right? Those are some of the challenges in working with the system that does exist there.”

Beck says while there have been dry years before, but he has never seen a dry year coupled with the heat that has come this summer.