Author of the article: Kellen Taniguchi
Publishing date: Aug 28, 2021 •
Hay bales are seen in field near Highway 37 and Highway 2 north of Edmonton, on Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2021. As historic drought conditions have destroyed crop yields across the Prairies, hay prices have skyrocketed.
Photo by Ian Kucerak PHOTO BY IAN KUCERAK /Postmedia
Article content
A summer of heat waves and little rainfall has Alberta farmers struggling to make it through the season.
Crops aren’t making enough feed for some cattle farms and Shelby Blosky, owner of Double S Ranch Cattle Co., said farmers like herself are having to buy extra hay bales at steeper prices due to limited supply.
“Typically, we pay around $50 for a round bale of hay and this year there’s prices out there upwards of $300 a bale,” said Blosky, whose farm is about 107 kilometres southwest of Edmonton near Breton. “There’s going to be a lot of farms that are just going to say they are done with it and that’s really heartbreaking to see.”
Blosky said the increased prices of hay and other crops are forcing some farmers to sell off their cattle at auctions, and it’s hard for her to see because farmers don’t farm to be rich.
“We do it because we love it. I can’t imagine family farms that have had the same cattle bloodline for 100 years and they’re being forced to sell their cows — it just makes me sick, to be honest,” said Blosky, adding she still thinks about the cows she had to sell six to seven years ago to avoid going into debt.
Melanie Wowk, chair of Alberta Beef Producers, which represents over 18,000 cattle farmers and ranchers in the province, confirmed that some farmers are being forced to sell their cows.
“We’ve definitely heard from the auction markets that cattle numbers are up,” said Wowk. “So, there’s a lot higher numbers going through right now than there typically is at this time of year.”
On July 9, Wowk said she got several calls from producers in the area who said their crops were starting to turn early due to the extreme heat and they were worried the crops would deteriorate to the point that they wouldn’t be worthwhile to turn into feed.
The hotter-than-average summer has been detrimental to the condition of crops and just 18.2 per cent were considered to be in good to excellent condition as of Aug. 10, according to the province’s crop report. The report noted that the 10-year average has seen 69.9 per cent of crops in good to excellent condition.
“In the cropping sector in Alberta, these are the worst drought conditions we’ve had since 2002 when there was a widespread drought in Western Canada,” said Tom Steve, general manager of the Alberta Wheat and Barley Commissions. “It’s definitely going to take its toll on a number of farmers.”
Steve said prices for a lot of crops are very strong due to the drought reaching many regions, however, he said farmers have no or very little crop to sell and are unable to take advantage of the strong prices.
“It’s going to cost the same amount of money to harvest that crop. Whether it’s a four bushel per acre yield or a 50 bushel per acre yield, it still costs you the same for fuel, labour and wear and tear on your equipment.”
Regions south of the Trans-Canada Highway have seen the biggest impact due to the drought, he said.
Blosky, Wowk and Steve all said the extreme heat has also brought more grasshoppers.
“It was pretty disheartening to go walk out into the pasture when we turned the cows out and the grasshoppers had already eaten a very large amount of the grass,” said Blosky. “There’s nothing you can do about it. It’s just another thing this year.”
ktaniguchi@postmedia.com
Article content
A summer of heat waves and little rainfall has Alberta farmers struggling to make it through the season.
Crops aren’t making enough feed for some cattle farms and Shelby Blosky, owner of Double S Ranch Cattle Co., said farmers like herself are having to buy extra hay bales at steeper prices due to limited supply.
“Typically, we pay around $50 for a round bale of hay and this year there’s prices out there upwards of $300 a bale,” said Blosky, whose farm is about 107 kilometres southwest of Edmonton near Breton. “There’s going to be a lot of farms that are just going to say they are done with it and that’s really heartbreaking to see.”
Blosky said the increased prices of hay and other crops are forcing some farmers to sell off their cattle at auctions, and it’s hard for her to see because farmers don’t farm to be rich.
“We do it because we love it. I can’t imagine family farms that have had the same cattle bloodline for 100 years and they’re being forced to sell their cows — it just makes me sick, to be honest,” said Blosky, adding she still thinks about the cows she had to sell six to seven years ago to avoid going into debt.
Melanie Wowk, chair of Alberta Beef Producers, which represents over 18,000 cattle farmers and ranchers in the province, confirmed that some farmers are being forced to sell their cows.
“We’ve definitely heard from the auction markets that cattle numbers are up,” said Wowk. “So, there’s a lot higher numbers going through right now than there typically is at this time of year.”
On July 9, Wowk said she got several calls from producers in the area who said their crops were starting to turn early due to the extreme heat and they were worried the crops would deteriorate to the point that they wouldn’t be worthwhile to turn into feed.
The hotter-than-average summer has been detrimental to the condition of crops and just 18.2 per cent were considered to be in good to excellent condition as of Aug. 10, according to the province’s crop report. The report noted that the 10-year average has seen 69.9 per cent of crops in good to excellent condition.
“In the cropping sector in Alberta, these are the worst drought conditions we’ve had since 2002 when there was a widespread drought in Western Canada,” said Tom Steve, general manager of the Alberta Wheat and Barley Commissions. “It’s definitely going to take its toll on a number of farmers.”
Steve said prices for a lot of crops are very strong due to the drought reaching many regions, however, he said farmers have no or very little crop to sell and are unable to take advantage of the strong prices.
“It’s going to cost the same amount of money to harvest that crop. Whether it’s a four bushel per acre yield or a 50 bushel per acre yield, it still costs you the same for fuel, labour and wear and tear on your equipment.”
Regions south of the Trans-Canada Highway have seen the biggest impact due to the drought, he said.
Blosky, Wowk and Steve all said the extreme heat has also brought more grasshoppers.
“It was pretty disheartening to go walk out into the pasture when we turned the cows out and the grasshoppers had already eaten a very large amount of the grass,” said Blosky. “There’s nothing you can do about it. It’s just another thing this year.”
ktaniguchi@postmedia.com
Hay bales are seen in a field near Highway 37 and Highway 2 north of Edmonton, on Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2021. As historic drought conditions have destroyed crop yields across the Prairies, hay prices have skyrocketed.
Photo by Ian Kucerak PHOTO BY IAN KUCERAK /Postmedia
Hay theft reflects level of farmer desperation
By Doug Ferguson
By Doug Ferguson
WESTERN PRODUCER
Published: August 26, 2021
Livestock, News
Alberta SPCA provincial supervisor Stuart Dodds, left, and Alberta Environment and Parks conservation officer Rob Spellicy receive 11 bales that were recovered from a rural property.
Published: August 26, 2021
Livestock, News
Alberta SPCA provincial supervisor Stuart Dodds, left, and Alberta Environment and Parks conservation officer Rob Spellicy receive 11 bales that were recovered from a rural property.
| Alberta SPCA photo
RCMP investigate after grass was illegally hayed in an Alberta park and bales stolen before they could be recovered
Theft of about $10,000 in hay bales gathered without a permit from a provincial park in Alberta, and then allegedly stolen before they could be donated to a charity, is being seen as an example of the desperate situation many livestock producers face.
Due to widespread drought and heat waves that have caused poor hay crops and rising prices across much of Western Canada, “people are going to whatever length to secure feed,” said Stuart Dodds, provincial supervisor for the Alberta SPCA.
After the round hay bales were found in the park by conservation officers, Alberta Environment and Parks decided to donate them to the SPCA. However, the bales were removed by an unknown party before the charity could pick them up.
It had planned to use them as feed in case livestock are seized from producers this winter, said Dodds. He warned the feed shortage means everyone from large livestock producers to hobby farmers with horses need to make plans to secure feed or downsize herds as they head into this fall and winter.
Failure to prevent animals from starving in Alberta can result in everything from fines of up to $20,000 to prohibitions on owning livestock, and “it could become a big problem in these coming months,” he said.
Alberta Environment and Parks was informed July 17 that a grassy area within Lois Hole Centennial Provincial Park near Edmonton and St. Albert had been illegally hayed, the department said in an email. “Haying within a provincial park or protected area requires a permit; the department did not issue a haying permit for that location.”
Eleven bales were subsequently recovered from a rural property by the department in connection with the original complaint and donated to the Alberta SPCA, said Dodds. However, someone else appears to have separately come in and removed about 70 of the bales that remained in the park, he added.
It is the first such incident known to Dodds involving a public park.
“We’re hearing stories at the moment, just odd little stories of feed being stolen, but that’s from people’s fields and things like that.
“I think people are just getting a bit desperate and trying whatever they can to get supplies … If producers have a lot of feed on hand in yards and what have you, they need to be making sure that it’s secure because somebody might come in and attempt to take it, so you need to be careful around especially these rural areas.”
The alleged theft is believed to have occurred between July 31 and Aug. 5, said the email by Alberta Environment and Parks. Although the matter is currently part of a criminal investigation by the St. Albert RCMP for alleged theft over $5,000, efforts by The Western Producer to contact the detachment for further information were unsuccessful.
It wouldn’t have been easy to remove the bales, Dodds said in the statement by the Alberta SPCA. “Collecting 70 bales would have required a bale picker as well as numerous loads on a flatbed semi-trailer.”
Due to the fact it is difficult to predict in advance the severity of the upcoming winter, hay is purchased by the Alberta SPCA on a case-by-case basis as livestock seizures occur, he said in an interview.
“We couldn’t buy a whole bunch of bales now and just have them sit there for two years because it’ll just go mouldy, and if we don’t use them, it’s a waste of time and money, isn’t it?”
Anyone with information about the alleged theft can contact the Conservation Officer Enforcement Line at 780-644-3880, or the St. Albert RCMP.
RCMP investigate after grass was illegally hayed in an Alberta park and bales stolen before they could be recovered
Theft of about $10,000 in hay bales gathered without a permit from a provincial park in Alberta, and then allegedly stolen before they could be donated to a charity, is being seen as an example of the desperate situation many livestock producers face.
Due to widespread drought and heat waves that have caused poor hay crops and rising prices across much of Western Canada, “people are going to whatever length to secure feed,” said Stuart Dodds, provincial supervisor for the Alberta SPCA.
After the round hay bales were found in the park by conservation officers, Alberta Environment and Parks decided to donate them to the SPCA. However, the bales were removed by an unknown party before the charity could pick them up.
It had planned to use them as feed in case livestock are seized from producers this winter, said Dodds. He warned the feed shortage means everyone from large livestock producers to hobby farmers with horses need to make plans to secure feed or downsize herds as they head into this fall and winter.
Failure to prevent animals from starving in Alberta can result in everything from fines of up to $20,000 to prohibitions on owning livestock, and “it could become a big problem in these coming months,” he said.
Alberta Environment and Parks was informed July 17 that a grassy area within Lois Hole Centennial Provincial Park near Edmonton and St. Albert had been illegally hayed, the department said in an email. “Haying within a provincial park or protected area requires a permit; the department did not issue a haying permit for that location.”
Eleven bales were subsequently recovered from a rural property by the department in connection with the original complaint and donated to the Alberta SPCA, said Dodds. However, someone else appears to have separately come in and removed about 70 of the bales that remained in the park, he added.
It is the first such incident known to Dodds involving a public park.
“We’re hearing stories at the moment, just odd little stories of feed being stolen, but that’s from people’s fields and things like that.
“I think people are just getting a bit desperate and trying whatever they can to get supplies … If producers have a lot of feed on hand in yards and what have you, they need to be making sure that it’s secure because somebody might come in and attempt to take it, so you need to be careful around especially these rural areas.”
The alleged theft is believed to have occurred between July 31 and Aug. 5, said the email by Alberta Environment and Parks. Although the matter is currently part of a criminal investigation by the St. Albert RCMP for alleged theft over $5,000, efforts by The Western Producer to contact the detachment for further information were unsuccessful.
It wouldn’t have been easy to remove the bales, Dodds said in the statement by the Alberta SPCA. “Collecting 70 bales would have required a bale picker as well as numerous loads on a flatbed semi-trailer.”
Due to the fact it is difficult to predict in advance the severity of the upcoming winter, hay is purchased by the Alberta SPCA on a case-by-case basis as livestock seizures occur, he said in an interview.
“We couldn’t buy a whole bunch of bales now and just have them sit there for two years because it’ll just go mouldy, and if we don’t use them, it’s a waste of time and money, isn’t it?”
Anyone with information about the alleged theft can contact the Conservation Officer Enforcement Line at 780-644-3880, or the St. Albert RCMP.
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