Wet summer problematic for some Alberta farmers

Sep 06, 2016

Some areas have seen double the normal amounts of rain

By Diego Flammini
Assistant Editor, North American Content
Farms.com

Some farmers in Alberta are concerned that too much rain may have fallen in the province.

"Most of the province is struggling with too much of a good thing. We all like to see rain but most of the province has had too much rain and too much of it has come in late August when we would rather have nice, dry weather so we can be harvesting," Allison Ammeter, a farmer from Sylvan Lake, told CBC.

Ammeter said too much moisture can affect the crop’s quality.

“At the beginning of August most of us thought we had some really excellent quality, now I am hearing average quality.”

Rain field

Kevin Auch, chairman of the Alberta Wheat Commission, said since farmers were able to start growing early, producers could have an average crop.

“We are all wanting to get into the fields and get harvesting but we are being delayed at various points in our harvest,” he told CBC. “And you know the crop is getting mature and getting ready to go and when we get rain at that time of year, it doesn’t help us any. All it does at this point is, it reduces our quality.”

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.