Alberta Farmers Face Challenge Of Salvaging Last Year's Soggy Crops Before Spring Seeding

Mar 21, 2017

The chances for a good crop this year in parts of Alberta could be jeopardized by the fact that more than 400,000 hectares of damaged crops are still sitting under the snow, unharvested last fall because of winter's early arrival.

Canola, wheat and barley lay in fields up and down Alberta, much of it covered in snow, and much of it ruined, said Warren Sekulic, a farmer and director with the Alberta Wheat Commission.

It's an unprecedented situation, he said.

Some parts of Alberta were hit with rain and hail in September at the height of the harvest, followed by a dump of heavy, wet snow in early October.

"I know there's couple of guys I talked to in central Alberta that have farmed [for many years] and they've never had a fall like this," he said. "This one takes the cake."

Sekulic said northern, central and eastern Alberta have been hardest hit, but there are many pockets across the province where crops are still snowed in.

Source : CBC

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.