by Bart Guyon has a close relationship with his livestock, which makes it that much harder to part with them.
But as a perennial drought continues on the Prairies, ranchers like Guyon are making the tough choice to reduce or sell their herds.
“Especially if you’ve bottle-fed any animals, you get pretty attached to your livestock, and it’s quite difficult,” he said.
The Brazeau County, Alta., man raises bison, elk and cattle on his nearly 6,500-hectare ranch, but in the past few years, his bison herd has dwindled from 30 to about 100, his cattle from about 50 to 25 and his moose under 60 to about 25.
Rancher Bart Guyon has about 100 bison left after selling 30 recently. (Peter Evans/CBC)
“We’re reducing them based on the fact that we’re having a harder time producing them [feed] away from the farm,” Guyon said, adding water sources like a nearby lake also dried up.
“I’m talking, like, dust.”
And Guyon is not alone.
Chance Martin, owner and auctioneer at Thorsby Stockyards, said the last year and a half has been busy as farmers are reducing their herds and not being replaced.
Thorsby Stockyards holds a cattle auction every Monday throughout the year. (Kory Siegers/CBC)
“If they didn’t get more grass or buy more land, everyone as a whole has reduced their herd, for sure. Percentage, some of them managed to take advantage of it.”
He said some farmers may have been thinking of selling, however, due to other reasons such as lack of feed, but the drought was the catalyst that pushed them over the edge.
Martin is concerned about the major issues that could arise from herd reduction.
“As we go through these drought cycles and people start bringing down their herds, it hurts food security in Canada and around the world.
“It’s a big concern. I mean, it’s all about the weather [agriculture] industry, it really does.”
Lingering drought
Drought has hit some parts of the Prairies in the past few years, said John Pomeroy, Canada Research Chair in Water Resources and Climate Change at the University of Saskatchewan.
Pomeroy said the drought was “very severe” last year when the seasonal snowpack melted about a month early in the Prairies, the mountains and across the North, contributing to hot and dry conditions in the summer.
Researcher John Pomeroy inspects a weather station near the Troll Falls Trailhead near Canmore, Alta. (Justin Pennell/CBC)
“[That] put us under unusual drought conditions in some places – the kind of drought you see once in a lifetime,” he said.
Soil moisture levels are hundreds of millimeters below where they should be, while snowpacks are 150 to 200 millimeters below normal, he said.
Although heavy snowfall has recently fallen in parts of the Prairies, it is not enough.
“That helps, but it still doesn’t bring us up to normal conditions,” he said.
“Above-normal snowpacks would be needed to break the drought and provide a reasonable supply of water for irrigation and downstream cities.”
Concerns are growing about Alberta’s drought conditions, especially as the province reels from last year’s historic wildfire season, which burned an estimated 2.2 million hectares.
The province is preparing its wildfire resources, with 100 additional firefighters, and a $2-billion contingency fund for disasters and emergencies proposed in the latest budget.
The hope for spring
Trevor Hadwen is an agro-climate specialist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. (Will Draper/CBC)
Trevor Hadwen, an agri-climate specialist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, said droughts slowly increase over time and their impacts persist.
“We’ve lost about one year’s worth of snow in the three years of drought,” he said.
“I don’t think we’re going to recover this spring.”
Instead, he said he was hoping for an increase in soil moisture, making it possible to produce crops, as well as timely rains throughout the season.
He said climate change is leading to more droughts and extreme weather.
Bart Guyon recently installed a water tank on his ranch to help collect water. (Peter Evans/CBC)
As for Guyon, the farmer, he is doing everything he can to alleviate the situation.
He has installed water tanks, run hoses to the nearby stream and set up water troughs, all in an effort to collect as much water as possible.
“Most farmers are pretty resilient. They usually find a way to overcome the obstacles and find a way to make it work,” said Guyson.
He is optimistic that the measures he has taken will be enough, but he admits that things are in the hands of Mother Nature.
“You don’t have water, you don’t have life. And water is essential for everything – whether it’s plants, animals or people.”
