Fall harvest wrapping up in Cardston-Siksika: MLA Schow

Posted on September 19, 2024 by Vauxhall Advance

By Heather Cameron
Vauxhall Advance
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Joseph Schow, MLA for Cardston-Siksika riding, has thoughts on the 2024 harvest season.

“I’m glad to see harvest is underway and I hope farmers in my riding and across Alberta will see excellent yields,” said MLA Schow. “When Alberta’s ag sector thrives, our economy thrives.”

This year, MLA Schow says, those within his riding worked together to ensure that they were prepared for what looked to be another very dry growing season, coming on the heels of a few consecutive dry years.

MLA Schow also observed that the province experienced persistent moisture deficits throughout the growing season, especially in the South and Central regions, which affected crop development. Given the conditions, MLA Schow says, the harvest continues under generally good weather, but rain is forecast, which might slow harvest progression.

“Despite these challenges, the harvest has generally been progressing ahead of the five- and 10-year averages,” said MLA Schow. “I hope they see good yields, good prices and get a chance to rest for a bit during winter.”

In the South Region, MLA Schow says, producers wrapped up their fall cereal harvest recently with 94 per cent of winter wheat and 93 per cent of fall rye harvested this year. Dry peas and lentils continue to lead pulse harvest progress, MLA Schow says, with 87 per cent of peas and 59 per cent of lentils harvested. Mustard continues to lead oilseed progress, MLA Schow says, with 23 per cent of this year’s crop in the bin. Five per cent of canola has been harvested so far. Thirty-five per cent of durum, 30 per cent of spring wheat, 55 per cent of barley and 29 per cent of oats have also been harvested for the year in the South Region, MLA Schow says.

“In Alberta, irrigated crops generally fared better than dryland crops in term of yields and quality,” said MLA Schow. 

For the latest updates on harvest progress and conditions, MLA Schow says that his riding publishes the Alberta Crop report every two weeks, and that report can be found at: found here: https://open.alberta.ca/publications/2830245.   

“We worked with irrigation districts and water license holders to see where we could reduce water usage,” said MLA Schow. “As well, we set up the Drought and Flood Protection Program, which helped communities design and construct projects that protect critical infrastructure from drought and flooding. This year, $25 million was available, and another $100 million will be available over the next four years.”

One project that directly affected the 2024 growing season, MLA Schow says, is Alberta’s historic $933 million investment partnership with the Canada Infrastructure Bank and nine irrigation districts for irrigation modernization and expansion. Projects that were finished over the winter made a substantial impact on irrigation users in many districts, MLA Schow says.

“As a government, we team up across ministries to ensure the sector has the people, skills, markets and anything else it needs to keep putting the best food on dinner tables worldwide,” said MLA Schow. “As a government, we team up across ministries to ensure the sector has the people, skills, markets and anything else it needs to keep putting the best food on dinner tables worldwide.”