Rocky View County (RVC) farmers are gearing up for harvest in the coming weeks, and conditions overall are looking pretty good out in the countryside, according to Greg Boehlke, RVC's Division 5 councillor and chair of the municipality's Agricultural Service Board.
“The hay crops were actually better than everybody expected,” confirmed Boehlke, who also farmed in the northwest portion of the county for nearly 30 years and still owns some farmland there.
“The guy that actually farms my place, I talked to him. They silaged the whole crop. He said he did about 10 tonne to the acre, which is good for the year.
“I also talked to some other folks who just barely started combining. They did a little bit of wheat and they said it was going between 65 to 70 bushels an acre, which is good.”
Boehlke said the high temperatures this summer and the at-times violent hailstorms that passed through certain parts of the county did have some impact on crop quality this growing season, particularly on canola.
“The one big drawback people feel, especially to the east of Highway 2, will be the canola,” confirmed Boehlke. “It’s probably hurt pretty bad, but nobody has started on that yet, really. Harvest is just kind of getting under way.”
The former RVC reeve and current council member said harvest was a bit slow getting started this year in much of south-central Alberta because there was still quite a bit of green in some of the crops left over from recent rain showers.
“If people happened to be under showers there could still be some green left in the crops,” he confirmed. “East of (Highway 2) in most normal years, there is a lot of straight combining done, and apparently this year a lot of guys have gone back to their swathing because there is a lot of green in some of this stuff.
“And for crops like malt (brewing) barley, you can’t desiccate it (dry it out too much) and you can’t have a whole lot of green in it or you lose the malt factor.”
According to Aug. 23 Alberta Crop Report for the Central Zone, which includes the Rocky View County area, all crops are currently rated good or excellent when compared to the 10-year average. Farm Credit Canada also pegged wheat prices, (as of Aug. 31), to be sitting at about $809 USD per tonne, with canola prices sitting at about $835 CAD per tonne.
In 2022, wheat production became king once again in Canada, as farmer’s nationwide planted 55.1 per cent more wheat than they did in 2021. Much of this increase in production taking place on the prairies, according to Statistics Canada. Canola acres also saw an increase of 41.7 per cent over 2021.
With good prices for both crops, local farmers should be well-placed to see a bountiful harvest in the coming weeks.
While a few heat waves and other weather-related factors have made it a somewhat stressful summer for local farmers, Boehlke said high commodity prices, coupled with what is shaping up to be decent yields for some crops, should help producers end their year on a largely positive note.
“There was a lot of stress with the drought, and some guys got hit pretty hard with hail if they were in the wrong spot,” he said. “But farmers are always considered the eternal optimists. I think with commodity prices being high – and they need to be high because input costs are extremely high and machinery costs are crazy – farmers need the good prices to (get) return, and they need the yields.”
Boehlke expected this year’s harvest to get into full swing in the next week or two.
“I think there are some guys starting now, and it will break open in the next week or two, for sure,” he said. “It is a stressful time of year, but it is also a nice time of year to reap the rewards of what your year’s effort was.”
