Southern Alberta farmers hope to pull bumper crop this year

Threats are always on the horizon,but farmers in Southern Alberta are hoping to best the odds and pull in a bumper crop this year.

"Other than it was the earliest crop,earliest ever we seeded, it's not remarkable yet," said Gerry Good, who's been farming in the Carstairs area for 75 years.

In 2013 he saw what he calls a once-in-a-lifetime crop.

"I'm not sure we have that potential here. A really good crop yes, but probably not a 2013."

Good weather, threats too

The weather has been cooperating so far this year, with plenty of moisture to feed Alberta's agricultural bounty, but that weather is a double-edged sword.

"Under good moisture conditions with high humidity we get these good thunder showers developing, possible hail storms, and it's also ideal conditions for disease to develop too," said Harry Brook, a crop specialist with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry.

"You really have to watch out for things like disease, which can reallytake over and devastate the yield on a crop. We're not out of the woods yet but we can sort of see the light through the trees," he said.

It's the hail that worries Good, who's already seen twostorms roll through with damaging balls of ice, one of which hurt his fieldpeas. Disease he can deal with, but he's powerless against the weather.

"We're almost at the point on the wheat where any hail is going to be a loss," he said.

Railways

But if it does survive, andif the weather continues to work in his favour, Good said the railways need to be prepared.

"You now, 2013 they were caught short of staff, short of equipment," he said."We've warned them that this possibility is here for this year. They need to know."

Good is expecting to harvest in the middle of August,about 10days early.

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