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Unprecedented drought grips Southwestern Saskatchewan

Soil moisture conditions in western Saskatchewan are far worse than they were in the Dirty Thirties, says a farm leader.

“It’s not just a little bit drier than the 1930s, it’s way drier,” said Garner Deobald, president of the Saskatchewan Stock Growers Association.

For instance, annual precipitation in Swift Current so far in 2022 is 300 millimetres below average, which is twice as bad as the worst year in the 1930s.

This will be the 11th straight year of below-average precipitation. In the 1930s the longest streak was two consecutive years.

Deobald said today’s farmers have the know-how, the equipment and the crop genetics to get through these tough times. But he thinks people need to understand just how bone dry it has become in that region of the Prairies.

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No-Till vs Tillage: Why Neighboring Fields Are World Apart

Video: No-Till vs Tillage: Why Neighboring Fields Are World Apart

“No-till means no yield.”

“No-till soils get too hard.”

But here’s the real story — straight from two fields, same soil, same region, totally different outcomes.

Ray Archuleta of Kiss the Ground and Common Ground Film lays it out simply:

Tillage is intrusive.

No-till can compact — but only when it’s missing living roots.

Cover crops are the difference-maker.

In one field:

No-till + covers ? dark soil, aggregates, biology, higher organic matter, fewer weeds.

In the other:

Heavy tillage + no covers ? starving soil, low diversity, more weeds, fragile structure.

The truth about compaction?

Living plants fix it.

Living roots leak carbon, build aggregates, feed microbes, and rebuild structure — something steel never can.

Ready to go deeper into the research behind no-till yields, rotations, and profitability?