Big Lakes County declares Municipal Agricultural Disaster

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At their last council meeting on September 8, 2021, the Big Lakes County Council came to an agreement to declare Municipal Agricultural Disaster after a year that brought drought conditions and a record-breaking heatwave in June.

The decision was made on behalf of producers in all sectors of agriculture in Big Lakes County that have been severely affected .

Ken Matthews, Big Lakes County Reeve said in a statement “Big Lakes County relies predominately on agriculture, with many residents depending upon that industry to live and raise their families.”

“After a drier than normal winter, our agricultural producers were hit with record breaking heatwaves and a lack of seasonal rainfall. All this combined has resulted in premature ripening of crops, and in some places even complete crop failures with yields and quality that are likely to be poor.”

Pasture conditions in the region are 63.5 percent poor, hay is rated at 59 percent poor, and crop rated at 13 percent good to excellent.

“These unprecedented seasonal events have forced our producers to make tough decisions like having to use viable crops for feed and even reducing their herds.” continued Reeve Matthews.

Big Lakes County hopes by declaring Municipal Agricultural Disaster; like many other municipalities around the province the provincial government will considering helping producers struggling with financial aid and access to mental health resources.

The federal and provincial government has created a $340 million AgriRecovery program for ranchers which can be applied for through Agricultural Financial Services Corporation.

As for grain farmers; the governments of Canada and Alberta, through the Canadian Agricultural Partnership, doubled the low yield threshold to encourage Alberta grain farmers to divert additional cereal or pulse crops to be salvaged for livestock feed.

-Erika Rolling, Trending 55 Newsroom