Farmers and ranchers in southeastern Alberta contending with bone-dry summer

Andrew Jeffrey · CBC News

· Posted: Jul 09, 2025 9:46 AM EDT | Last Updated: 2 hours ago

When 2024 brought a amended increasing play for farmers successful Alberta aft years of facing worse drought conditions, Josh Beck was optimistic 2025 would beryllium adjacent better.

Beck, who's been farming for astir 25 years, grew much assured from seeing the magnitude of snowfall successful the winter, arsenic good arsenic promising results from the runoff and subsoil moisture. But instead, farmers successful southeastern Alberta are moving done a difficult, adust season, thing that's go much communal for astir 8 years, Beck said.

"We've been successful truthful galore years present of this, sometimes it feels similar the presumption quo. We're conscionable trying to negociate the champion we can," said Beck, who's 1 of the owners of Beck Family Farms, astir 80 kilometres northbound of Medicine Hat. He grows tract crops similar barley and mustard, and has a cow-calf operation.

Because of the adust summer, Beck said his workplace is trying not to walk immoderate much wealth than it needs to, particularly into a existent harvest that won't nutrient capable to screen the farm's costs, erstwhile there's nary warrant astir erstwhile this adust spell volition end.

"Throwing each this wealth retired successful the outpouring and having nary mode to retrieve it twelvemonth aft twelvemonth gets beauteous hard connected people," said Beck. 

"You spell into endurance mode, you're not trying to walk wealth wherever you don't request to. You ever person to upgrade equipment, but you're looking astatine cheaper pieces of instrumentality oregon instrumentality with much hours connected it to effort and dispersed those costs out."

Alberta's latest harvest study shows overmuch of confederate and cardinal Alberta person enjoyed mean to precocious precipitation levels this increasing season. But it besides shows that overmuch of the Medicine Hat country and Cypress County person seen debased to highly debased precipitation levels, comparative to its mean amount, since April.

Bone adust summer

Over astatine the Sunrise Ranching Company, Dan Pahl is having a akin summer.

On his ranch northwest of Medicine Hat, Pahl said the summertime has been bony dry. For him and for different farmers successful the area, Pahl said he's seen crops that haven't adjacent travel retired of the ground, and an expanding pest occupation with grasshoppers thriving successful the adust conditions and mowing down grass that should beryllium for cattle.

"I person ne'er seen a harvest wherever it hasn't germinated, wherever determination hasn't been capable moisture successful the crushed to adjacent germinate," said Pahl.

Like Beck, Pahl notes that past twelvemonth brought amazingly bully rainfall. But it came amid a play of six to 8 years wherever drought has been a continuous problem.

"It conscionable benignant of keeps getting worse and worse, due to the fact that we conscionable can't get ahead," said Pahl.

"We get a twelvemonth similar past twelvemonth wherever we get immoderate decent rainfall, and past everybody is ace optimistic. We're planting crops, we're readying for large years. And past the pat conscionable shuts disconnected for us."

Pahl tin lone nutrient astir fractional the provender helium needs for his cattle, astir doubling his wide costs. In the drier conditions, Pahl is increasing astir 60 to 65 per cent of what helium typically tin run, which is each helium tin muster until helium gets much clarity astir what the aboriginal volition hold.

"Obviously we can't foretell what parent nature's going to springiness us, but we've conscionable got to benignant of hold and spot what's going to happen," said Pahl, adding that farmers were optimistic astir the magnitude of moisture they saw backmost successful February and March, earlier it each conscionable stopped.

More rainfall could beryllium connected the way

The adust conditions were exacerbated by little than mean rainfall successful June, said Christy Climenhaga, a idiosyncratic with Environment and Climate Change Canada. The Medicine Hat country received lone astir 41 per cent of its mean precipitation past month, successful what's already a much arid country of the province.

The adust conditions are besides being felt just over the borderline successful adjacent southwest Saskatchewan, wherever hazard of fire and farmers' struggles to marque provender person worsened to the constituent that several municipalities person declared states of emergency because of drought.

Farmers successful different parts of Alberta were besides acrophobic astir drought earlier a invited dense rainfall hit. But the ample strategy of rainfall that cities similar Calgary felt haven't been seen yet successful southeastern Alberta.

"You tin spot precise ample fluctuations due to the fact that of the quality of however immoderate of this precipitation falls. You look astatine June, and we had that precise important rainfall lawsuit successful the Calgary country dropping a batch of moisture into the foothills, into Calgary, and past not rather arsenic overmuch arsenic you determination toward Medicine Hat," said Climenhaga.

Climenhaga said below-normal precipitation is inactive projected for confederate Alberta passim the adjacent fewer months, but she noted it's hard to foretell semipermanent erstwhile 1 tempest tin alteration that outlook. 

And conscionable successful time, she added that a small rainfall is expected successful the portion aboriginal this week, which could beryllium a boon for farmers.

Beck is holding retired that a timely ablution oregon 2 volition assistance his late-season crops crook out, adjacent if the early-season crops are successful trouble. He and Pahl besides some noted that a precise beardown cattle marketplace has been a saviour for galore successful the manufacture this year, and Pahl projected it should stay beardown for a twelvemonth oregon two.

Retaining immoderate optimism and looking guardant to rainier days is portion and parcel of the manufacture they enactment in, Beck said.

"We were hoping that 2025 was the turning point, but possibly 2026 volition be," said Beck. 

"I mean, if you're going to beryllium successful agriculture, you person to beryllium optimistic. And it's not ever easy, but you person to deliberation astir adjacent year."