In a meeting earlier this week, the Brazeau County council voted unanimously to declare a state of agricultural disaster.
Harvest numbers were so poor that the county council claims it had no choice in the matter.
“According to some regional information, it’s around 75% that hasn’t been harvested,” County Reeve Bart Guyon told
CBC News. “The crops are actually amazing but they are all flat, and underneath that flattened crop is two inches of water. We’ve got guys that are coming in that would never come in and ask for help, and that’s kind of what’s going on.”
Guyon underlined that farmers need “the perfect scenario” to produce favorable crop yields.
“We need about two weeks of solid warm, dry weather followed by some frost. The quality of the crops is certainly going to go down the longer it stays in the field. But even bad feed is better than no feed,” he explained.
Conditions were so grim in Brazeau that Guyon commented that standard crop insurance would not cover farmers’ losses.
“There’s lots of little quirks with insurance that doesn’t necessary work out,” detailed Guyon. “They sometimes give you a bit of pain with this fall, and then they have to wait until you see what you get harvested in the spring time. And in the meantime, the bills don’t stop coming in.”
This is the second time in just over two years that the county declared an emergency. The last time Brazeau County declared an agricultural state of disaster was last year, in July, due to severe drought.
Minister of agriculture and forestry Oneil Carlier pointed out that severe weather has affected farmers across the province.
“It’s been a real heartbreaker of a year,” Carlier stated. “We understand the wet and snowy conditions are delaying harvest and having an impact on the quality of crops in many parts of Alberta.”
Carlier said that the provincial government will offer farmers with help through the Agriculture Financial Services Corporation, through loans, crop insurance and farm income disaster assistance.
Due to the agricultural state of disaster declaration, Brazeau County can ask the provincial and federal governments for disaster recovery funding.
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