Farmers who have been Hailed Out may Reseed This Year

Many farmers in south central Alberta are hoping they still have time to seed a new crop and harvest it this fall.

 

Many farms, from Acme down to Taber had their newly seeded crops wiped out by that massive hailstorm that struck the region, nearly 2 weeks ago. Some farms were pounded for 20 minutes with baseball sized hail that was still lying in the fields the following day. Cereal crops and canola were shredded and for some producers, its simply too late to replant. The crops that survived the damage might be suitable for feed when its finally harvested later this year.

 

Yesterday, the province announced the storm met the criteria to force payment under the disaster relief program for non-insurable damage. Northeast Calgary was especially hard hit by the storm, where damage is pegged at close to a billion dollars.

 

In the Drumheller, Three Hills area, Jared Potter, Commercial & Farm Insurance Broker with Centre Street Insurance in Drumheller, notes that he has had a couple of farmers call him about hail they received in the Three Hills area.  "We've been working with our partner Palliser on the hail insurance. Some of the farmers we've insured in the Three Hills area, sounds like it was early enough in the (growing) process that there was no real damage or reseeding done.  That's the importance of calling your broker just making sure you are properly protected."  Potter says that from their information, we get around four or five hail storms a year in our area.

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.