After experiencing drought conditions for the majority of the summer and having called a state of agricultural emergency, Westlock County is now trying to facilitate the exchange of hay from producers to cattle farmers.
Reeve Bud Massey said the county declared a state of emergency at its July 28 meeting to help its farmers receive insurance payouts for their drought-affected crops.
Aside from the insurance payout, the county also wants to ensure the crops the farmers do get are put to use.
“Our biggest hope is we can coordinate activities between our beef producers and our farmers to make sure the crop that’s written off isn’t just piled under,” Massey explained. “It could be used to support the livestock industry. In some cases it’s the same person, they have some cattle and they have some farm property.”
Massey said it’s an opportunity to make the best of an unfortunate situation. “It’s the best utilization of a poor crop,” he added.
The county will put together some information packages to help inform farmers on how hay sharing can benefit them.
“We’ve discussed holding some informational sessions and town hall meetings,” he said. “We’ve already put together some informational fact sheets and we’re just going to advertise it every opportunity we have.”
Westlock AFSC insurance specialist Karena Chapotelle said AFSC leaves it up to the farmer to do what they want with the yield they do get.
“I just inform them of the options we offer; that they can take it to harvest, or they can do a pre-harvest, whether it’s a total or partial, and then from there we assess a yield and that’s recorded for them for the year,” Chapotelle said. “From there they can go ahead and o what ever they decide with that field whether that’s sell it to the neighbour, green feed, or plow down.”
AFSC’s manager of operational strategy Glen Snethun, who was also in attendance at the July 28 meeting, said there’s also the possibility of partial harvesting.
“The partials are very important, it’s not all or nothing,” Snethun said. “There are options for partial parts of the field to be harvested and parts to be taken for another use (feed).”
Snethun said AFSC won’t force producers to sell off their crop as feed, but the organization would help encourage communication between grain farmers and cattle producers.
“We don’t have a mandate to do that, but we’re here to facilitate and make sure that people understand that we will support that process,” he said.
Also at the meeting, council passed a motion to run an advertising campaign to discourage local farmers from importing hay and feed from out of province, as it may bring disease here.
“We need the feed here but there’s also another issue that would be detrimental,” said Coun. Ron Zadunayski.
The county’s manager of agricultural services Jacolyn Tigert added to Coun. Zadunayski’s point, citing issues from importing hay and feed that came up during the drought of 2002.
“We could potentially have that again,” Tigert said. “I think it’s very important we do an information list explaining the situation; this is how pests are brought in, this is how weeds are brought in and please be aware of what you are bringing in.”
