Several farmers in southwestern Saskatchewan say their crops are withering and dying before their eyes.
In the rural municipality of Big Stick, there was a “half inch” of rain for the whole month, said Reeve Quinton Jacksteit, a longtime grain farmer.
“As a farmer, it’s depressing to go out into the hot, hot, windy days and then watch your crops deteriorate,” he said. “There’s really not a lot of optimism.”
His RM is among at least four others in the area — namely, the RMs of Maple Creek, Fox Valley, Enterprise and Waverley — that have declared states of emergency due to drought.
Data from the latest national drought report confirms what farmers there already knew: the drought in southwest Saskatchewan got much worse last month.
The region saw less than 25 per cent of normal rainfall, according to the report. The Canadian Drought Monitor — which is the official source for monitoring and reporting drought nationally — now classifies some areas of southwest Saskatchewan as experiencing extreme drought conditions.
Extreme drought is the second-most-severe classification on the agency’s five-category scale and represents a one in 20 year event.
From May to June, some areas of southwest Saskatchewan saw a “three-class jump” on the drought monitor’s scale up to the extreme drought classification.
Swift Current recorded its 11th driest June on record, according to the report.
Jacksteit said if they don’t receive “any kind of substantial moisture before seeding next year,” he’s not sure what they’re going to do.
Like Jacksteit, Kelly Bakanec, a fellow grain farmer and reeve of the neighbouring RM of Fox Valley, said he has watched his crops deteriorate this season.
“I like to drive around and check crops every night. And every day, the crop is going backwards,” said Bakanec of his farm, which has been in his family since 1912.
“If we don’t get any rain in the next week or two, it’s just going to burn up to nothing. We probably won’t even take the combines out.”
Severe Saskatchewan drought threatens crops, livestock
Bakanec said he knew this year’s drought would be bad right after seeding for the season. It’s especially disheartening, because he said this is the ninth consecutive year of drought in the area.
The current crop insurance programs were never developed for long-term droughts, let alone for nine years in a row, he said.
Without decent crops and with crop insurance programs “not doing what they’re supposed to do anymore,” Bakanec said the majority of farmers he knows work second jobs to supplement their farms.
Bakanec has an additional job in the excavating business and all three of his sons also work off the farm.
“Farmers are fighters,” he said. “We’ll make it work, but we’re breaking our backs trying to do it.”
In the RM of Big Stick, Jacksteit said there will be big financial losses this year and that farms could lose between $50 to $100 per acre.
Some likely won’t be able to afford to farm after this year, he said.
“We’ve been saying this is coming, because you cannot sustain those kinds of losses and continue,” said Jacksteit. “There’s probably farms that are going to have banks knocking on their doors.”
