Kolton Brown is looking forward to hot summer temperatures in the next week after his southern Alberta farm got the much-needed precipitation it needed this spring.
It’s “a nice change” for the Nanton-area farmer a year after southern Alberta crops suffered through a drought. Brown, whose farm got 120 millimetres of rain in June, says this year’s crops, and others in his area, are looking “fantastic.”
“The crops could use a little more heat to get growing a little faster,” said Brown, who farms about 2,000 hectares of land near Nanton, 80 kilometres south of Calgary, with his father Brian. “It’s been quite cool, so it’s kind of delayed the growth a little bit.”
The latest Alberta crop report, which details conditions as of June 25, says southern Alberta crops are above their five- and 10-year averages. Surface soil moisture is listed as 53 per cent good to excellent, which is not “amazing” but competitive with previous years, said Brooklyn Wong, a crop statistician with Alberta Agriculture and Irrigation.
“In the southern part of the South Region, there are some dryer areas that are going to need some moisture in the next couple of weeks,” said Wong, adding the southwest corner of the province looks like it’s among the parts of the province that could use more surface soil moisture.
But Alberta temperatures are expected to warm up by the end of this week, with temperatures possibly reaching the high 20s, and by the middle of next week a heat event could occur in Alberta, with temperatures potentially reaching the mid to high 30s, said Environment and Climate Change Canada meteorologist Alysa Pederson.
And for July, climate models predict it’s highly likely that temperatures will be above normal in the province, said Pederson.
“Even through August and into September, we’re generally looking at temperatures above normal again across the country,” she said.
Alberta was a bit cooler last month than normal, with the average daily temperature being about one degree Celsius below normal.
While June might have seemed wet last month in southern Alberta, it was actually drier than normal last month, said Pederson.
“Medicine Hat only had about half of (the precipitation) they normally get,” she said.
Medicine Hat got 35 millimetres of precipitation last month, 30 below normal, while Calgary got 67 millimetres in a month when it averages 95. Lethbridge averages 82 millimetres but got 55.
“Pretty much everywhere in the province had a little bit less than normal for precipitation in the month of June,” said Peterson.
The province remains in stage 4 of its drought response plan, and water-sharing agreements are still in place for both the Oldman South Saskatchewan River Basin and the southern tributaries. Agreement signatories, which include irrigation districts and the cities of Lethbridge and Medicine Hat, are next meeting on Thursday to decide whether the agreements need to continue to be kept active and how much water will be available for their use over the next two-week period.
“Water levels at government-owned reservoirs are being managed carefully to stay within their normal range as the province enters into our hotter and drier summer months,” said Fournier.
“We will continue monitoring the situation closely and will adapt as needed in the coming weeks and months.”
Brown will be closing watching not only the weather but also other things that can damage his crops, including fungicides, gophers (Richardson’s ground squirrels) — which seem to enjoy eating canola and led to his farm having to reseed 20 hectares in one canola field — and hail, with a big storm rolling through the Nanton area on Sunday.
“We’re looking at really good crops (in his area) if we can avoid hail now,” said Brown.