The rain has come, but earlier in the summer it was looking desperate for Cypress County farmers and ranchers like Josh Beck.
In mid-July, this southeastern Alberta county was forced to declare an agricultural emergency for the fourth time in five years.
It’s a dry region at the best of times. However as of July 20 areas around Medicine Hat, the largest city in the county, had received between 60 and 90 millimetres less rain than normal.
Farmers’ fields were dusty. Soil moisture ratings were dipping into the poor rating according to the Alberta Crop Report.
Award-winning farm
Beck is a fourth generation farmer. He, his wife Jennifer, and their three kids raise 80 head of cattle and grow peas, barley, hay and other crops on a farm near the hamlet of Hilda.
The farm dates back to 1923 when Frederick Beck settled in Schuler 21 kilometres south of Hilda.
Two years ago, when the farm celebrated its 100th anniversary, it was named Cypress County Family Farm of the Year. That same year at the Farming Smarter conference Beck won the Oroville Yanke Award for excellence in farming and his soil conservation efforts.
“We’ve been in a drought cycle for a number of years. In our area, we have to conserve every little bit of water we get. To do that, with the winds that have been coming, we have to keep that ground protected,” he said in an interview for Farming Smarter.
“Keeping a thatch layer to hold in moisture and keep the wind evaporation off has been key for us.”
This technique has enabled the Becks to have higher crop yields some years despite very little rain.
Dryland farming
The Becks are dryland farmers. They don’t have the luxury of irrigation. They depend on nature to deliver the moisture their farm needs. It can be a nail-biting existence.
“It didn’t rain from April until June,” Beck told TheRockies.Life after a long day on the farm.
The 100 millimetres of rain that he estimates has fallen since late July have turned things around. He said he’s never seen the farm so green in August but it’s still going to be a tough year.
“Now we’re dealing with weeds and crops at different stages. Our harvest is definitely going to be below average this year,” Beck said.
Drought and weather unpredictability has become a fact of farming life for the Becks and other farmers.
Crop insurance can literally be a life saver for family farms facing the impacts of a multi-year drought.
“Every year we hope we’re not going to have to make a claim,” Beck said.
Greenhouse capital
There are 2.3 million acres of farmland in Cypress County. The South Saskatchewan River flows through Medicine Hat, a city of 68,000 that is considered the “Greenhouse Capital of the Prairies” with 75 acres of crops growing under roofs.
Irrigation-dependent and dryland farmers produce a variety of crops, including wheat, canola, alfalfa, peas, as well as specialty greenhouse produce and livestock. In total more than 800 farms generate half a billion dollars in annual gross farm receipts.
“The life we chose”
Beck is not one to complain about the weather. But at the end of the day, if snow doesn’t cover the ground in winter and rain doesn’t fall at the right time of the year, it makes for lean times.
“This is the life we chose and it’s all part of the game,” he said. “You stress about the weather until June when you get your seed in the ground then you hope to live to farm another day.”
He hopes that one day their daughter and two sons, the fifth generation, will carry on the Beck family farming tradition.
“I guess it depends on how much they see us struggle,” he said.
