'Desperate for rainfall': Farmers, ranchers in southwest Sask. reeling from another dry year

CBC

5 hours ago

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A rural municipality in southwest Saskatchewan is sounding the alarm as the worst dry conditions in almost a decade push crops and livestock to the brink.
The RM of Big Stick, located close to the Alberta border about 300 kilometres southwest of Saskatoon, has declared a local state of emergency, and more municipalities may follow as producers face worsening arid conditions.
"This is year nine of a drought for us," Quinton Jacksteit, the RM's reeve and a longtime grain farmer, said in an interview. "Our crops, they're desperate for rainfall.
"Some of our early crops, like our barley, it's really, it's dying in the field as we speak."
Jacksteit said the state of emergency was necessary to get the provincial government's attention and start conversations about better financial assistance for producers.
"This [year] is probably the worst, simply because we're in the middle of June and we're already writing crops off, like this shouldn't be happening at this stage," Jacksteit said.
He said that even if rain comes now, the damage is already done.
"It's hard to have that optimism anymore. I see it in my neighbours that it's very stressful and there's a lot of hurt, "he said. "We need a crop because this year there's going to be financial losses, and they're going to be significant."
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Cattle rancher struggling
Ross Martin, a councillor for the RM of Big Stick and a cattle rancher, said he's only seen half an inch (around 12 millimetres) of rain fall this spring, and the grass is around four inches (about 10 centimetres) tall.
"The cows don't have anything to graze on," he said. "If we don't get some more moisture, they're going to run out of grass before the end of the summer, that's for sure."
Martin said he will have to graze his cattle on hay fields normally reserved for winter feed, which he worries will not be enough.
"Everybody's worried," he said. "A lot of my friends on the RM are also farmers, and their problem is their crops. They've emerged, but they're only staying about four inches high. And so they're not going to have anything to combine if we don't get some rain."
Both Martin and Jacksteit said the current crop insurance programs are not enough, especially after almost a decade of dry conditions. They said insurance no longer covers the true value of their expenses.
"We definitely need changes to our program with climate change and everything being what it is," Jacksteit said. "Our government needs to be looking at these programs and … they need to be updated."
He said some producers in the area could see losses of $50 per acre (about $20 per hectare) or more this year.
"Last year, our durum was valued at $10.85 for the crop insurance program. This year, the government dropped it to $8.50. That's a 20 per cent reduction in our insurance," he said.
He compared the situation to Alberta, saying the insurance programs there are superior.
"The government has been very slow in reacting to this drought," Jacksteit said. "Now this year, we are in a dire situation. The government hasn't announced any program to help livestock producers."
NDP calls for action
The Saskatchewan NDP echoed those concerns, calling on the Saskatchewan Party government and the federal Liberal government to step in with support.
"Our cattle producers produce the best beef in the world, and they need our support when we see the threat of drought putting livelihoods at risk," the Opposition's deputy agriculture critic, Trent Wotherspoon, said in a statement Tuesday.
The NDP is calling for:
A drought response committee with representation from municipalities, producers and industry groups.
A 10-year deferral of federal capital gains for producers forced to sell off cattle due to drought.
Improvement of business risk management programs, with equity for livestock producers.
Jacksteit, who chairs Route21 — a group of six RMs in the southwest area, including Maple Creek and Fox Valley — said more municipalities are looking into declaring emergencies.
"There will be a voice from a much larger area coming soon," he said.
"Rural Saskatchewan has supported you [the Saskatchewan Party government] through all these years, and now we need your support. So don't let us down."
'We're very concerned'
Garner Deobald, a rancher from Shamrock — around 75 kilometres west of Moose Jaw — and the immediate past president of the Saskatchewan Stock Growers Association, said the dry conditions are just as dire where he is, with widespread crop failures, poor water quality, and little to no hay to cut for winter feed.
"Yeah, the conditions right now, we're very concerned," he said. "It's dry," and hay crop is largely "non-existent," he said.
The water situation is just as alarming.
"We started to do some treating, some dams and dugouts again, just because of algae concerns, and the water quality isn't very good," Deobald said.
"There are multiple challenges, and right now we're trying to figure out what we're going to do going forward as far as grazing goes for the summer. And then the big concern is having enough feed supply going into the winter again."
Support for livestock producers is urgently needed, he said, especially given how severely the drought is shrinking the provincial cattle herd.
"It definitely is urgent because most cattle producers recognize now that there's going to be a very poor hay crop in two-thirds of the province," Deobald said. "We're already to the point where we know that there's going to be a feed shortage in those areas."
Deobald said the government needs to step in to help, not just with short-term relief, but to ensure the future viability of the cattle industry.