By Liam Verster

Drought Concerns

Heat wave raises concerns of drought for Peace Country farmers

Jun 24, 2021 | 11:29 AM

The impending heatwave and a lack of any real precipitation over the past few weeks has some farmers in the Peace concerned of a drought and the harm it could cause to their crops.

Brent Konstapel, Region 6 Director for Alberta Barley Commission and a farmer from the Spirit River area, says there was a bit of rainfall recently, but still not nearly enough.

“We were fortunate to get some rain last week, close to an inch in some places, a little more or a little less in a few places.

“All in all they’re looking good, but they’ll go down quick in this hot heat.”

Konstapel says those farms that did get some rain greened up a little, but not everywhere got the rain from the last storm. He says other hayfields, pastures and dugouts across the region are drying up and starting to struggle.

On top of the drought, he says some local farms had the additional burden of getting hailed on during the last storm.

“So that sets back the crop too and damages it, so we’ll see what comes back.

“With this heat, I’m sure that’s not going to be good for it either.”

Konstapel says while they were fortunate to get a bit of wet weather recently, it hasn’t offered much help because the soil moisture has basically all dried up.

He adds without the ability to use big irrigation systems like they have in Southern Alberta, area farmers are essentially at the mercy of the weather.

“Little showers, if we get a few of them, I guess they might add up, but you need a good inch (of rainfall) in most places to recover. In this much heat it’ll disappear real fast.”