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Rain Could Translate Into Bumper Crops For Southern Alberta Farmers

One group isn't complaining about Alberta's soggy summer — farmers.
 
Some say the unusually high amount of rain could translate into bumper crops this season.
 
"Yeah there's going to be some really good ones, if we don't get hail.", said Gary Rach, whose bright green barley and canola fields sit north of Calgary.
 
Over the last three months, weather experts say southern Alberta has seen 150 per cent more rain than usual for this time of year. In an area east of Strathmore, it's the most rain they've seen for that same period in the past five decades.
 
Ralph Wright, with Alberta Agriculture says it's all thanks to one rainstorm after another.
 
"They basically haven't stopped since about mid may and they keep coming and coming," said Wright.
 
As for Rach, any talk about potential bumper crops is tempered by news of some falling crop prices and hopes for clear skies heading into harvest time.
 
"Oh yeah, it's going to have to dry out before we can do much cutting, that's for sure," he said.
 
Alberta Agriculture and Forestry crop specialist Mark Cutts says the rain started around the May long weekend.
 
Source : CBC

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Cleaning Sheep Barns & Setting Up Chutes

Video: Cleaning Sheep Barns & Setting Up Chutes

Indoor sheep farming in winter at pre-lambing time requires that, at Ewetopia Farms, we need to clean out the barns and manure in order to keep the sheep pens clean, dry and fresh for the pregnant ewes to stay healthy while indoors in confinement. In today’s vlog, we put fresh bedding into all of the barns and we remove manure from the first groups of ewes due to lamb so that they are all ready for lambs being born in the next few days. Also, in preparation for lambing, we moved one of the sorting chutes to the Coveralls with the replacement ewe lambs. This allows us to do sorting and vaccines more easily with them while the barnyard is snow covered and hard to move sheep safely around in. Additionally, it frees up space for the second groups of pregnant ewes where the chute was initially.