By Michael Reeve

Severe drought leading to lack of feed for ranchers

Aug 2, 2023 | 4:06 PM

KAMLOOPS — The province of British Columbia is facing two separate but very much connected emergencies this summer. As we approach August, the province has already lost the most hectares in history to wildfire, and at the same time is experiencing severe levels of drought.

While within city limits, residents may be asked to conserve water and let their lawns go brown, ranchers in the surrounding areas are facing tougher decisions.

“We’ve been in drought since the end of last June. We missed fall and spring last year because we really went from summer to winter and winter to spring and we didn’t get the spring rains and fall. So, we are in a progressively dry period right now,” said B.C. Cattlemen’s Association GM Kevin Boon.

The prolonged drought has led to a lack of feed for livestock. Boon did state that cattle prices have gone up recently, but he’s worried about a potential run on B.C. cows if conditions worsen.

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“We are not dealing with crops, we are dealing with living animals. So, animal welfare is our major concern,” added Boon. “So, we have two choices, we find the feed or we move the cattle out. Our primary focus is to try and retain as much of our breeding herd as we can.”

Local rancher, and TNRD Area ‘L’ Director Doug Houghton mentioned how his fields are currently the driest he’s ever seen.

“We have lack of dry land hay production around Knutsford, and then you throw the lack of water throughout a lot of it, it’s like a quadruple whammy. It’s going to be a work in progress, it’s going to be financially tough on these folks up here,” said Houghton.

In Kamloops on Thursday (July 27) for a funding announcement, B.C. Agricultural Minister Pam Alexis was short on details regarding how her ministry was planning to help struggling ranchers.

“I can tell you that regional we have agrologists that are part of the tables with local government, with regional districts, with first nations to address those impacted by the drought conditions and doing whatever they can to assist. So, we are very active on any drought conversation,” stated Houghton.

Some of the assistance from government local ranchers are looking for will be with regards to new initiatives around water conservation.

“We are seeing with early runoffs and massive runoffs, we are seeing the water escape much quicker than it should,” said Boon. “We need to be building some storage, and that doesn’t mean mega-dams, that means our dugouts, our beaver-dam type style. And we need to be able to do that because what we store above ground, we got about 90 times as much in the ground. There is things we can and should be doing.”