Heat spell, dry season hurting western Alberta crops
CTV
The extreme heat and lack of precipitation is being felt on farms across Alberta, and there's a high probability of it hurting this year's yield.
The extreme heat and lack of precipitation is being felt on farms across Alberta, and there's a high probability of it hurting this year's yield.
The quasi-drought is noticeable south of Red Deer and gets even worse south of Calgary, where many regions were already short of moisture as far back as last year.
That left farmers planting in dusty ground this spring, and barring a meteorological miracle, a lot of those crops won't mature in the summer.
"This is weather we're used to in August," Gladys Ridge farmer Leroy Newman said. "We've never seen it in June like this."
On Newman's farm, thousands of acres of hay, wheat, barley, peas and canola have taken a beating.
Some seeds haven't yet germinated.
"I don't know if you could justify even cutting (what's there)," he told CTV News Thursday.