Intermittent fall flurries and below-zero temperatures have left farmers, and other Central Albertans, with their hands tied.
Doug Edgar, owner at Edgar Farms, said it’s been a month now since some farmers have been able to turn a combine wheel for any significant amount of time because of the snow and wet fields.
“You either wait for it to melt, or you wait for it to get really, really cold so you can combine,” said Edgar from his Innisfail-area farm on Tuesday.
He said root crops are mostly in, but farmers are still harvesting cereals.
“The quality is going down, and probably with the yield there’ll be some losses.”
The long-time farmer remembered Christmas weather good enough to run the combine, but there’s no predicting how much snow there will be, he said.
“There’s been some years people don’t get it done till spring. You combine one day and seed the next.”
He said it’s been much worse than normal. A month is a long time for your finances to be laying out in the field.
“Everybody invests everything in the spring and you don’t get it back till it’s back in the bin.”
Edgar said farmers started out the season optimistic, but that’s starting to wane.
Dan Kulak, Environment Canada meteorologist, said the average temperature is 13 C, but Red Deer won’t see that this week with a high 7 C and a low of -7 C. But the forecast for next Monday is 18 C.
“So let’s keep our fingers crossed it will get to 18 C. Other than that we’re in a cold pattern for the next at least six out of seven days,” Kulak said.
He said the current pattern has been hanging on for about a month. In September the daytime highs and nightime lows averaged out to 6 C to make it the fourth coldest September in 106 years of data. The 30-year average for September is 9.9 C.
Vic Walls, Border Paving Ltd. manager, said so far it’s the worst October that long-time staff can remember for paving work.
“There are I think only two or three small crews working in Red Deer today. They’re only doing a little bit of preparatory work, getting some pavement areas ready for surfacing. Otherwise we’re shut down,” Walls said.
“Some of our people in the past week or two have only been able to work less than 20 hours in a week so it’s really affecting us.”
He said when temperature drops below zero and the ground freezes they can’t get the base prepared for paving.
“We normally work into November. Not very far into it, but sometimes to Remembrance Day. They work longer in Calgary because the climate is different. If you go further down into Lethbridge, they work well into December,” Walls said.
Brett Heintz, project manager for the Hwy 2/Gaetz Avenue interchange project, said some additional efforts are required due to the weather so some activities have been slowed down.
“We’re no different than any other construction contractor, or farmer, in this province. We definitely have been feeling the effects of the cold and the rain and snow,” Heintz said.
“We’re going to try and still get these roads and bridges open before the winter. We’ve got quite the challenge. It really depends on weather.”
The interchange involves the construction of five new bridge structures, the reconfiguration of ramps and intersections, realignment of Hwy 2, the expansion to six lanes between 32nd Street and Mackenzie Road, and the construction of new collector-distributor roads.
Heintz said the project is about 80 per cent done and work is focusing on getting the roads and bridges operational for the 2019 Canada Winter Games. Some minor work will still need to be completed next year.
szielinski@reddeeradvocate.com
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