As harvest approaches in central Alberta, Kevin Bender is in his shop west of Sylvan Lake prepping his combine, augers and grain bins for what is shaping up to be a strong yield.
“It’s coming on quick,” Bender said. “We’re trying to get all together. So that we’re ready for harvest when it’s ready for us.”
Bender, a grain farmer whose family has worked 1,300 acres for more than 35 years, saw the rains in June rescue what initially looked like another dry season.
“If we hadn’t gotten it, then it would have gone the other way,” he said. “That rain in June really made the difference.”
Across central Alberta, major crop yields are projected at 23 per cent above their five-year average and 20 per cent more overall provincially, according to Alberta’s latest crop report.
David Lee, manager of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s National AgroClimate Information Service, considers those strong yields. He noted the moisture was good news for some farmers, but proved catastrophic in northeastern Alberta.
In mid-August, the M.D. of Bonnyville declared an agricultural state of disaster after the region saw around 23 inches, or nearly 600 millimetres, of rainfall this growing season.
As of Aug. 21, nine municipalities have declared agricultural disasters due to excessive moisture, including Beaver County, Westlock County and Sturgeon County in northern Alberta, and central Wetaskiwin County.
“We’re seeing areas there that are 175 to 200 per cent above normal amounts of precipitation, which is certainly abnormal,” Lee said.
Lee noted that Alberta had experienced several dry years, with large parts of the province in drought last year, places like northern areas around Edmonton experiencing moderate to severe drought.
While conditions could still change if there’s more heavy rainfall in the near future, Lee said things look positive.
“The good news is there’s none predicted in the forecast that I’ve seen from Environment Canada,” Lee said. “We’re expecting normal precipitation and above-normal temperatures for September, October and November. So, harvest should proceed well.”
For Bender, farming through recent years has felt a bit unpredictable.
“2024 was my worst year as far as production goes. 2025 was my highest production as long as I’ve been farming,” Bender said, adding that spaced-out rains last year produced a really good crop. In that spectrum, he anticipates 2026 will land around above average.
Southwest of Bentley, farmer and Alberta Canola board member Jason Lenz said that despite good rains this year, he feels sub-soil moisture needs to be replenished and does not consider drought conditions to be fully over.
Fully recovering from years of drought takes a long time, he said, but timely surface rains allow crops to still do well.
Instead, Lenz feels the story of the year is simply that there has been more rainfall than in recent years, though he feels for producers in areas where fields were drowned out or left unseeded.
“Definitely, sorry to hear that when you talk to some of your farmer friends in those areas,” he said.
Bonnyville-area grain and cattle producer Dwayne Kalinski is one such farmer.
“We must have prayed too hard, and we got a little too much moisture. Like a lot too much this year,” Kalinski said. As of mid-August, he said 10 per cent of his crops had been written off by insurance, and expects more losses to come.
“There’s going to be close to 20 per cent of the crop gone right off the top. So yeah, it’s pretty, pretty devastating.”
Caleb Fagnan runs a cow-calf operation on 45 acres near the town of Bonnyville. Aside from battling footrot, he said ensuring he has enough quality feed to last the winter has been his biggest challenge.
With partially flooded fields and standing water in places he’s never seen, he’s anticipating he’ll need to supplement feed to ensure his livestock get enough nutrients through the colder months.
“[It’ll] probably be a lot harder winter on the cows getting through living on lower quality feed.”
Back on Bender’s farm, the financial swing between dry and wet years directly dictates farm decisions. A poor crop he said means holding off on upgrading equipment or making adjustments in the field.
“If things look good, if prices are good, then it’s like, ‘Oh! Maybe now I can upgrade some equipment that I need to,'” Bender said. “And that’s the way we continue.”
Those in wetter regions like Kalinski are left wondering how much, if any, of their crops will be salvageable by fall.
“As a farmer, you have to be optimistic,” Kalinski said. “But if we don’t get a change in the pattern of weather, we might not be able to start harvest.”
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However he and other Bonnyville locals said end of season outcomes are difficult to predict with any degree of certainty yet.
“Just paying your bills, like I say sometimes, is an OK thing,” Kalinski said. “It won’t be a bumper year for crops and stuff I don’t think, because there’s too much damage.
“But if the sunshine comes, it could end up better than it looks.”
In an Aug. 21 update, Kalinski said a week of warm, dry weather has allowed standing water levels to drop and has helped crops to mature. He said late crops may have success developing over the next month if damaging frost does not set in.
