At the same time a year ago, an estimated 37 per cent of the country’s agricultural land was facing drought.

At the end of March, an estimated 39 per cent of the country was classified as abnormally dry, or in moderate to severe drought, which was down from 53 per cent the previous month, AAFC said in the April 13 report.

WHY IT MATTERS: The improving conditions bode well for Canadian farmers in the areas that received moisture as spring planting and seeding approaches.

Large portions of central British Columbia, northern Alberta, central Saskatchewan and parts of Ontario and western Quebec recorded more than twice the normal March precipitation. However, above normal temperatures and below normal precipitation in southern Alberta and southwestern Saskatchewan continued to reduce soil moisture and increase the extent and severity of drought.

Drought conditions throughout much of Eastern Canada improved significantly with continued above normal precipitation and near normal temperatures. Some portions of central Ontario saw a two-class drought improvement in March.

Only 21 per cent of Prairie farmland in drought

Most of the Prairie region experienced near to above-normal March precipitation, with much of region receiving between 85 and 150 per cent of normal, with some localized areas exceeding 200 per cent of normal due to multiple winter storms. Southern Alberta remained dry with portions of the region receiving less than 60 per cent of normal precipitation and warmer than normal temperatures, resulting in continued expansion of drought.

Snowfall from repeated winter storms increased snowpack, particularly in Alberta, although periodic warming led to some snowmelt in southern areas. Overall, above-normal precipitation supported short-term moisture improvements in parts of Alberta and Saskatchewan, while precipitation deficits persisted in Manitoba, limiting recovery.

At the end of the month, 39 per cent of the Prairie was classified as abnormally dry, or in moderate to severe drought, which compares with 58 per cent the previous month. Only 21 per cent of the region’s agricultural landscape was abnormally dry or facing drought which compares with 47 per cent at the end of February and 32 per cent a year ago.

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On March 22, the federal government announced it would develop such a strategy, calling it “an opportunity to discuss how we can address freshwater-related threats and opportunities,” protect freshwater ecosystems, and secure water for communities and the economy, according to a news release.

The Canada Water Agency, which was repurposed in 2024 as a stand-alone freshwater management agency separate from Environment and Climate Change Canada, will spearhead the strategy’s development.

While the announcement was scant on details of what such a strategy might look like, it said the agency will work with provinces and territories, First Nations, Inuit and Métis partners, “stakeholders across sectors” and the public.

Farmers should be among those consulted, the CFA said in a statement to Glacier FarmMedia.

“Water security is absolutely critical for the future of Canadian farmers. Farmers in different regions of Canada have been devastated by water issues over the past few years, such as the floods in B.C., or the ongoing long-term drought in the Prairie provinces,” a federation spokesperson said.

“A lack of water has severe negative impacts on any type of farm, no matter what they grow or raise.”

Prioritizing food security, agriculture

The strategy should protect farmers and mitigate the effects of water-related events. It should also secure predictable access to water so farmers can maintain food production — for example, through effective water management policies and investment in water infrastructure, CFA said.

“Farmers need to make it clear that food security and agriculture production should be prioritized if there was any issues with access to water.”

“Farmers are also on the front-line of climate change, dealing with the on-ground realities of water-related events,” CFA added. “They have experience and knowledge that will be critical in developing this strategy.”

While the announcement made no specific mention of the agriculture industry, the sector will have an opportunity to share its views during the public engagement process, “recognizing that freshwater is fundamental to our economy, powering industries, agriculture, and the growth of communities,” a federal spokesperson told Glacier FarmMedia.

The federal government has not yet set timelines for consultations, but said those will be announced “in the coming months.”

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Ellis, 38, a fourth-generation farmer in Wawanesa, Manitoba, credits investments in pricey systems including minimum and zero-till farming which help protect soil; tile drainage, an underground system to prevent flooding; slow-release fertilizer pellets which are more effective, and advice from a professional agronomist on weedkillers.

“We are constantly making little tweaks,” he said. “That’s how we’re going to be able to keep fighting the changing climate.”

Across much of western Canada, farmers like Ellis have been turning out strikingly better crops despite hotter and drier conditions — far above what farmers in the region could have expected in better conditions years ago, according to Canadian government data, thanks in part to widespread embrace of climate adaptation strategies.

While greater yields in Canada and elsewhere are depressing global prices for grains, they are keeping many farmers in business.

Record harvests despite drought

Adaptation practices – which tend to be costly and require cutting edge technologies – have enabled many farmers to ride out a drought that began in 2020.

Earlier this month, the Canadian government announced record harvests of spring wheat and canola for 2025. And because most of the grains produced in Canada are shipped and consumed abroad, those gains have major implications for the rest of the world’s ability to feed itself affordably.

Australia, another large global grain exporter, has also reported rising crop yields despite drier conditions.

This combination of methods and technology is not just helping Canadian growers keep up with climate change, but stay ahead of its ravages, according to interviews with 25 farmers, scientists and agriculture industry leaders, and a review of more than a dozen academic papers.

Spring wheat, used to make high-quality bread, yielded 58.8 bushels per acre this year, according to the government data release. That’s a gain of 77 per cent from 30 years ago, based on a three-year average. Canola yields nearly doubled, reaching 44.7 bushels per acre, also based on a 1994-1996 average.

While most climate science paints a bleak picture for global food supply, with a study in Nature this year forecasting up to 40 per cent reduction in North America’s wheat harvest by 2100, the agricultural experts Reuters interviewed said that with climate adaptation strategies the Prairies can continue to produce bigger and bigger crops in the future.

“Back in the day, 30, 35 bushels an acre (for wheat) would have been a bumper crop,” said Rob Saik, a Canadian agronomist who has consulted with governments all over the world. “Now it’s an abject failure.”

A notoriously difficult region

Even before climate change brought more unpredictable and extreme weather, western Canada was a notoriously difficult region to farm.

The central Prairies, a land of green and golden short grasses and thin, scrubby brush, get only about half as much rainfall as Iowa, and have a much shorter growing season. Climate change has made it even harder. Environment and Climate Change Canada says the country is warming at double the global average and that extreme events have become more common. On the Prairies, annual snowfall, a key source of spring moisture, has declined and summer extremes of rain and drought have increased, with rain often coming in enormous torrents, or not at all.

“Extreme events, like floods, heatwaves, wildfires, and severe storms, are increasingly damaging to our economy, ecosystems and built environment,” the federal department said in a 2024 report.

Incremental gains, not miracles

Scientists and agronomists say Canada’s gains don’t come from a single, dramatic factor, but from steady, incremental progress with farming methods and inputs.

Many seeds now come stacked with insect, disease and weed resistance, thanks to conventional breeding as well as genetic modification. Fertilizer application is designed to minimize disturbance to the soil surface by being placed at the same time as the seed goes in.

Fungicides, weedkillers and nutrients allow crops to outcompete their natural enemies.

Some of the strategies recall pre-industrial practices, such as intercropping, growing multiple crops at the same time.

Experts also credit automation such as self-guiding tractors that apply fertilizer at different rates based on soil tests and satellite mapping.

One family’s adaptation evolution

The Mowbray family ventured into adaptive practices four decades ago with tile drainage, laying a small stretch of perforated pipe designed to take the water down into the soil rather than spread it across the surface.

Over the last 12 years, Scott Mowbray, 46, has expanded the drainage system to about 800 acres of his land.

Meanwhile, the Mowbrays gradually took up minimum till. By 2010, the 2,000-acre farm was entirely no-till, leaving the soil unplowed and with stubble standing as a moisture trap and a barrier against the wind that otherwise carries the topsoil away.

The innovations allow the Mowbrays to “pull off yields twice what we used to with half as much rain,” Mowbray said, producing “incredible” volumes of spring wheat, peas and rye.

Technology’s steep price tag

Much of what has allowed Canadian farmers to deal with climate change involves expensive and complex equipment. A smart combine costs upwards of $1 million. A high-speed-data-enabled tractor and seeding drill cost around $2 million.

Kip Eideberg, senior vice president of government and industry relations for the Association of Equipment Manufacturers, which represents John Deere DE , Case New Holland CNH and other manufacturers, said precision systems have saved Canadian farmers nine per cent in herbicide and pesticides, six per cent in fuel, and four per cent in water use. That saves money for farmers operating on razor-thin margins, he said.

Most large-scale farmers have access to such technology in their tractors, combines, sprayers and management computers, Terry Griffin, a Kansas State University agricultural economist, said. But an older generation of farmers often doesn’t want to take on digital challenges, while younger farmers don’t have the money for machines or agronomic advice.

One obstacle to greater adoption is rural broadband access. Mowbray can’t count on being able to run a constant stream of data from his big farm machines. He can’t even call his farmhouse from his cellphone. His farm relies on two-way radios instead.

“It’s a simple thing but hugely important when you are in the field and might need a pick-up but can’t get a call through to the house,” he said.

Seed science – the invisible factor

Another equally important factor for farmers’ gains: breeding genetically superior crops that are hardier, drought-tolerant and produce bigger yields.

“We’re just starting down that path,” said Rick Mitzel, CEO of farmer-and-industry-funded mustard seed development organization Mustard 21. The company is developing drought-tolerant plants as an alternative to canola. The varieties “come out of the ground quicker, develop roots quicker, get leafing faster,” Mitzel told Reuters in an interview.

The farmer-controlled South East Research Farm in Redvers, Saskatchewan has been testing crops such as camelina, which is most likely to be planted in Canada for sustainable aviation fuel, that could offer farmers better yields and more resilience.

Executive director Lana Shaw doesn’t think climate change will happen without losses to the Canadian farm community. Some farmers will choose to not adapt and will simply retire. Some will adapt and fail. And some farmers will adapt and thrive.

“Under pressure,” she said, “they can adapt very fast.”

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“Climate change is bringing more severe and longer-lasting droughts to many locations around the world. Some ecosystems have shown resilience to increasing drought, but this could change as droughts become more severe,” said the study.

The research showed that losses in plant productivity — the creation of new organic matter through photosynthesis — were more than twice as high after four years of continued extreme drought when compared to losses from droughts of moderate intensity. Grassland and shrubland ecosystems especially lose their ability to recover over time under prolonged dry conditions.

“We show that — when combined — extreme, multi-year droughts have even more profound effects than a single year of extreme drought or multi-year moderate droughts,” said Colorado State University biology professor Melinda Smith, who led the study with Timothy Ohlert, a former CSU postdoctoral researcher.

“The Dust Bowl is a good example of this,” said Smith in a news release on the study. “Although it spanned nearly a decade it was only when there were consecutive extremely dry years that those effects, such as soil erosion and dust storms, occurred. Now with our changing climate, Dust Bowl-type droughts are expected to occur more frequently.”

Smith designed and led the International Drought Experiment with more than 170 researchers around the world. For the project, researchers built rainfall manipulation structures that reduced each rainfall event by a target amount over a four-year period in grassland and shrubland ecosystems across six continents.

By simulating 1-in-100-year extreme drought conditions, the team was able to study the long- and short-term effects on grasslands and shrublands, which store more than 30 per cent of global carbon and support key industries, such as livestock production. Variations in precipitation, as well as soil and vegetation across continents, meant different sites experienced different combinations of moderate and extreme drought years — providing unique experimental conditions that informed the study.

The research also suggests that the negative impacts on plant productivity are likely to be much larger than previously expected under both extreme and prolonged drought conditions.

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“Canada’s new government is committed to supporting our livestock producers,” said Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Heath MacDonald in a news release.

Livestock Tax Deferral allows producers in prescribed areas to defer a portion of their income from sales until the next tax year if they are forced to sell at least 15 per cent of their breeding herd due to drought.

“Buffer zones” have been added to capture producers who are not in the prescribed zones but who may be experiencing similar adverse conditions.

“Weather, climate and production data from across Canada will continue to be monitored throughout the remainder of the season and regions will be added to the list when they meet the criteria,” the federal government said.

At the end of July, 71 per cent of the country was classified as abnormally dry or experiencing moderate to extreme drought according to Agriculture Agri-Food Canada data.

In the Pacific region, 91 per cent of agricultural land was classified as abnormally dry or experiencing moderate to extreme drought. In the Prairie provinces, 81 per cent of the agricultural landscape was considered abnormally dry or in moderate to extreme drought.

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If it seems the rain we do receive these days doesn’t go as far as it did in the past, it’s more than a hunch.

We’ve all had the experience of drinking more on a hot day. As it turns out, the atmosphere reacts similarly under global warming.

In the study “Warming accelerates global drought severity” published in the journal Nature, the University of California’s Santa Barbara Climate Hazards Center director Chris Funk says global warming is causing the atmosphere to behave “like a sponge, soaking up moisture faster than it can be replaced.”

In other words, the air is getting thirstier — a phenomenon that researchers say has increased the intensity of global droughts by 40 per cent over the past four decades.

“Drought is based on the difference between water supply (from precipitation) and atmospheric water demand. Including the latter reveals substantial increases in drought as the atmosphere warms,” Funk says in a release.

Globally, the areas in drought expanded by 74 per cent between 2018 and 2022. Atmospheric evaporative demand (AED) was responsible for 58 per cent of that increase.

“Our findings indicate that AED has an increasingly important role in driving severe droughts and that this tendency will likely continue under future warming scenarios.”

Most now accept that the climate is heating up, although debate continues as to the cause. Less well understood is the connection between global warming and the “desiccating influence of the atmosphere,” Funk said.

The atmosphere’s growing thirst adds a third dimension to precipitation and soil moisture equation driving crop yields — one that could challenge the viability of contemporary crop rotations.

University of Manitoba researchers recently published a study on how different crop combinations perform under drought conditions.

“The main objective of this study was to compare cropping systems that incorporated … diversity, intercropping, cover cropping, and heat tolerance with a “business-as-usual” rotation,” the research team, consisting of Samantha Curtis, Martin Entz, Katherine Stanley, Doug Cattani and Kim Schneider, reports in the Canadian Journal of Plant Science.

Atmospheric dryness (measured as vapour pressure deficit) during the two-year study in 2020-2021 was well above the long-term average.

The business-as-usual rotation selected for this study was wheat-canola-wheat-soybean, grown over two years at the Ian N. Morrison Research Farm located at Carman, Man.

The study also included a warm-season combination (corn-sunflower-dry bean-canola), a biodiverse rotation containing nine crops (fall rye with a cover crop-intercropped corn and soybeans-intercropped peas and canola-green fallow mixture), a perennial grain (Kernza intermediate wheat grass) and an organic rotation (millet-green fallow mixture-wheat).

The business-as-usual rotation yielded only 71 per cent of the biodiverse rotation and 59 per cent of the warm-season rotation. It also had a lower net return than the warm season rotation and fewer “live root days,” which is a measure of soil health potential, than either the biodiverse or the warm-season rotation.

The biodiverse rotation resulted in a net return similar to the business-as-usual crop mix, but needed half as much the nitrogen fertilizer. “While the biodiverse rotation required more seeding passes and greater plant diversity knowledge, the benefits observed here suggest that incentives and educational programs to speed adoption of biodiverse systems should be a priority,” the research report says.

“If growing conditions in Manitoba continue to become hotter and drier as predicted, growing more water-use efficient crops such as fall rye, corn, sunflower, and corn-soybean intercrops would increase climate resilience.”

A drying atmosphere also sets stage for the devastating wildfires now sweeping through wide swaths of Western Canada’s boreal forests every spring and summer, creating the prolonged and hazardous smoke conditions cloaking the region.

One of the unanticipated outcomes from all that smoke is its counterbalancing effect cooling things down.

A recently released University of Washington paper says wildfires in Canada and Siberia may reduce the earth’s warming by up to 12 per cent globally and 38 per cent in the Arctic over the next 35 years.

“Because the aerosols in smoke brighten clouds and reflect sunlight, summer temperatures during fire season drop in northern regions, leading to reduced sea ice loss and cooler winter temperatures,” lead author Edward Blanchard-Wrigglesworth says in a release.

No one can say this is good news. The authors point out that wildfires are expected to intensify in coming years, which doesn’t bode well for human health or forest biodiversity. And their effects on the boreal forest may escalate the release of more carbon into the atmosphere.

What all this is telling us is that even with computer modeling, improved real-time monitoring and technologies such as the emerging AI, we don’t have a good handle on the cascading effects of a changing environment. The effects and counterbalances are constantly setting new changes in motion.

I am reminded of an expression I’ve heard now and again from some of the more seasoned farmers I know: “Nature always bats last.”

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A team of researchers from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) and Canadian universities want to help solve this problem, and they’re looking for a dairy farmer in Alberta to lend a hand.

Audrey Murray, an AAFC research scientist based in Charlottetown, is collaborating with Marico Arlos from the University of Alberta and Anne Laarman from the University of Waterloo in Ontario on a five-year study, which started this spring. The researchers are examining how wastewater from dairy operations can be naturally treated through constructed wetlands to produce water for irrigating cattle feed crops.

To do this, Murray has assembled a series of pilot-scale wetlands at the Harrington research farm in P.E.I. to test different design variables for a dairy wastewater treatment system that can be put into practice on dairy farms.

Murray is currently seeking a volunteer dairy farmer in Alberta to partner with her team so a full-scale version of the system can be set up in that province later on in the project.

“We hope to find one as soon as possible, partly because we want it to be a co-development project. We would also like input from the producer, so they can let us know what they want. We want something that works for farmers, not just something that works technically. If it doesn’t work in a way that is helping them to run their farm, then it doesn’t necessarily meet our goals,” says Murray.

Once the project is completed, it’s hoped progressive early-adopters interested in this technology will have a tried-and-tested model for building such a system on their own dairy farms.

—> READ MORE: Floating islands could help filter cattle feedlot storm ponds

Murray and her team hope to have an Alberta producer-partner recruited by next summer, so they can begin initial work on wastewater lagoon sampling and wetland design.

The researchers hope to hear from producers with 100 to 150 head of cattle and who also irrigate and grow feed crops, and they are getting the word out through farm conferences in Alberta and through Alberta Milk, the province’s dairy producers’ association. Those interested in participating in the study can contact AAFC at 1-855-773-0241 or by email.

Murray’s replicated experiments in P.E.I. are aimed at ironing out design parameters for effective wastewater treatment before a full-scale version of the system is set up in Alberta.

Once that’s up and running, likely by the third year of the project, farmers will be encouraged to check it out and familiarize themselves with this nature-based solution to water shortages.

“We’ve had calls from farmers in different parts of Canada who are thinking about wetlands on their property. Farmers are smart people, and a lot of them read research or are interested in this type of thing already. We’re basically just providing an opportunity,” Murray says.

She adds the goal is to provide dairy producers in Alberta with a clear roadmap for treating wastewater naturally and provide them with an extra irrigation source at a time when it’s most needed.

“This is what farmers are looking for. They need some direction,” Murray says. “One of our deliverables is to produce design guidance for this specific purpose in Alberta (and) find something that works well.”

She notes one reason researchers chose Alberta for the project was because that’s where they saw the greatest need for this kind of water treatment and re-use solution. “It’s important especially in an Alberta agricultural context. It might be a slightly harder sell in P.E.I., I think.

“They have water shortages in Alberta, and at the time we wrote this proposal, they were experiencing severe drought and had been told that they would get half the water allotments they usually get. If you’re a farmer in that position, you have to then find ways to make the best use of the water that you have, and water re-use could be a part of that.”

Murray has conducted other wetland studies in P.E.I., researching how constructed wetlands on potato farms can naturally filter water from field runoff before it enters nearby streams and rivers. As she points out, wetlands also provide natural habitats for many species of plants, animals and insects, and they can even help capture carbon and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Murray views her current wetlands project as one more application of her previous research, which she maintains hasn’t been explored for dairy farms in Canada up to now.

The middle layer

Here’s how the plan is envisioned to work in Alberta. Many dairy farms there have holding lagoons where wastewater from manure, used animal bedding and dairy production practices such as milk-house rinsing is stored. Farmers will often mix the contents of the lagoon in the spring, producing a nutrient-rich slurry that can be applied to crop fields as a natural fertilizer before planting.

Prior to mixing, the wastewater in these holding lagoons separates into layers, with a top layer that is thick and fatty and a bottom layer where much of the solids settle. There’s also a middle layer that contains the cleanest liquid — which is the basis of Murray’s constructed wetlands research. The treatment system starts with extracting this middle layer of liquid from unstirred holding lagoons.

“The ideal scenario is to build a wetland sightly downhill from the holding lagoon. A pipe is placed into the right location of the holding lagoon, connecting it to the wetland, and then gravity does the rest. This engineering solution is very common in municipal wastewater treatment plants,” Murray says.

As the water flows through the wetland, its quality is improved through physical and biological processes. It then enters a final mixing pond, where it is diluted with clean pond water and brought to quality standards required for use as a supplementary source of irrigation water.

“The wastewater is produced on site and the irrigation infrastructure is already there, so it’s just about tapping into that extra water source. It’s very efficient,” Murray says. She adds the end product may contain a bit more nutrients than regular pond water, but stresses it’s not meant to be used for fertigation purposes.

Murray is building her mini-version of this system using wastewater provided by local P.E.I. dairy farmers and mesocosms — that is, controlled outdoor experiments designed to simulate natural ecosystems. Various mesocosms consisting of different wetland soils and plants are being used to determine which are most effective in treating the wastewater.

Researchers are testing the output water quality from each mesocosm, and determining the ideal design concept and projected cost for the entire system, before moving forward with the full-scale design in Alberta.

Murray sees more possibilities for treating waste streams from other agricultural operations such as hog barns or feedlots this way, and she says she’d be interested in continuing her wastewater treatment and re-use research in this area.

“This is beyond the scope of this project, but I can see that there are many potential applications and a lack of clear design guidance for farmers who are interested in these technologies,” Murray says. “Hopefully there’ll be a continued appetite for this kind of research in the future. I think there might be.”

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The Manitoba Agricultural Services Corporation (MASC) will provide support through its AgriInsurance program to improve cash flow for producers needing additional feed, Federal Agriculture Minister Heath MacDonald and Manitoba Agriculture Minister Ron Kostyshyn said in an announcement made on July 23.

“Our livestock producers play a critical role in our food supply and our economy. We need to do everything we can to support them, especially in the face of these dry conditions,” MacDonald said in a press release sent out that day. “These program changes will ensure producers in Manitoba receive claim payouts faster, so they can source other feed options as quickly as possible.”

MASC will apply a quality adjustment factor to reduce yield appraisals by 40 per cent for drought-stricken cereal crops converted to livestock feed. The adjustment covers wheat, oats, barley, fall rye, triticale and grain corn. The same measure was last used in 2021 and resulted in over 100,000 acres of grain crops being converted to livestock feed.

Producers with forage and pasture insurance will also see changes, including the option to defer premium payments on claims made before Oct. 1, receive partial payments when possible, and allow livestock to graze insured forage after the first cut without penalty.

“We recognize that some of Manitoba’s livestock producers are facing challenging conditions with the lack of precipitation in certain regions of the province,” Kostyshyn said.

“With pastures drying up and minimal sources of feed for livestock, it is important to give producers the resources they need to maintain their herds. These measures will help to improve cash flow for Manitoba’s livestock producers and provide additional options to access feed.”

MASC will also offer lending clients the opportunity to defer loan payments and provide guidance on financing feed purchases if needed.

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Scientists from the University of Saskatchewan and the National Research Council are studying alfalfa with yellow flowers to see if it can provide drought tolerance in future varieties for Western Canada.

Follow all of our Ag in Motion coverage at the Western Producer.

“(The) yellow flowering alfalfa is probably coming from northern Mongolia and some parts of Russia. It’s a very dry area,” said Bill Biligetu, a plant science professor at the University of Saskatchewan.

The forage crop breeder was at Ag In Motion 2025 July 15, one of thousands who attended the farm show northwest of Saskatoon.

Drought tolerant, high-performance alfalfa

Biligetu came to Ag In Motion to talk about his research on forages, including a project on drought tolerant alfalfa.

He’s part of a team of scientists who are evaluating a diverse germplasm of alfalfa with the broader goal of designing a new variety that can deal with drought and still produce a sufficient volume of forage. The other project leaders are Allan Feurtado of the NRC and Maryse Bourgault from the U of S’s plant sciences department.

The Beef Cattle Research Council and Results Driven Agricultural Research in Alberta are funding the project, which started last fall and continues until 2028.

“Superior alfalfa genotypes with high performance under drought will be selected for new population development,” says the project description.

“At least three new populations will be developed based on flower color, root traits and agronomic (yield).”

An alfalfa that performs during periods with low moisture is needed in parts of the Prairies. Southwestern Saskatchewan, for instance, has suffered through dry growing seasons since about 2018.

Focusing on the roots

The scientists have set up experiments in the lab and at the Livestock Forage Centre of Excellence southeast of Saskatoon to study how the roots of different types of alfalfa grow into the soil when they lack moisture.

Focusing on the roots should give them clues on how alfalfa plants respond to drought and scavenge for moisture.

It’s possible that yellow-flowering alfalfa is better equipped to find water in the soil.

“Typical Canadian varieties … have a big tap root. There is other purple flowering alfalfa that have (a combination) of branch and tap roots,” Biligetu said.

“If you look at yellow-flowering alfalfa, they have branched roots. The branches are bigger than the purple flowering alfalfa.”

This may help plants collect water from a wider zone, he added.

Improving yellow-flowering alfalfa yield

There is a yellow flowering alfalfa on the market in Western Canada called AC Yellowhead. It’s extremely winter hardy and persistent, but yield is smaller than other alfalfa varieties.

“(It’s) suited for pastures in both northern and southern areas and for hay where one harvest per year is intended,” says the Secan technical description of the variety.

Biligetu is hoping to blend the drought tolerant traits from a yellow-flowering variety with the high yield from a purple alfalfa and then create a new variety that can handle drought and produce a substantial amount of forage.

Getting to that point will take some time, partly because the scientists need to identify the genes that help alfalfa cope with drought.

“(We are) extracting DNA from all these alfalfa (types) and then we are sequencing them, so we have the genomic information,” he said, adding that drought tolerance is a complex trait.

“I don’t think we can find one or two genes. It’s more likely many genes.”

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Yet that is the focus of public policy, even as many producers enter another drought year and could be looking at downsizing.

“As a primary producer, I’m not convinced that more cows equals a better outcome for us,” Jeff Yorga told the organization’s annual meeting.

Instead, profitability, younger producers entering the business and keeping grass from being ripped up for grain land are all measures of a successful, healthy industry, he said.

SSGA calls for permanent tax deferral program

Yorga said the SSGA is working to change the policy mindset.

“We grow grass and the cows turn it into protein, and the only way to save the grass in a drought is you have to be able to move the cows,” he said in an interview.

“So when we think about metrics, having policy that is designed to keep the cows around doesn’t keep the grass around.

“What ends up happening is things get exacerbated because the owner wasn’t able to make a clear decision when drought first happened.”

He pointed to Australia, where if it doesn’t rain by a certain date, producers begin to sell off cattle immediately. If and when it rains, they buy back in.

That’s why he introduced a resolution calling for a permanent, 10-year tax deferral program so producers who have to sell because of drought aren’t forced to buy back in at a higher price. Right now, tax deferral areas are announced by the federal government each year. That resolution was passed.

Yorga also said the high prices and strong demand in the industry right now are positive for those who are still in beef production and for those who want to get out.

“I’m not comfortable saying that we need more cows, given the situation that we’re in right now. Bigger picture, I don’t see the herd growing at all this year,” he said.

Detriments of lower cattle numbers

Saskatchewan agriculture minister Daryl Harrison said he had heard Yorga’s message and would consider it.

“I always keep an open mind,” he said.

Saskatchewan Cattle Association chair Chad Ross also addressed the meeting and pointed out the detrimental effects of lower cattle numbers.

SCA collects the provincial and national beef levies, at $2 and $2.50 per head, respectively. Ross said total collections were down about $406,000 last year and are expected to drop another $600,000 this year.

The provincial portion is set to rise 75 cents as of Aug. 1 after extensive debate about raising it to $1.50.

SCA has already cut staff, research spending and third party funding.

“We want to stay positive, but we’ve got work to do to represent our producers. If we’ve got a million less dollars to do the marketing, to do the research, to do the advocacy, it’s tough,” Ross said.

He said producers are doing well and able to pay down debt due to the strong prices, but a 30 per cent decrease in marketings means that $1.50 is probably going to come back into play in future.

The Canadian Cattle Association gets 53 cents out of the $2 provincial levy, and it also had budgetary concerns. Saskatchewan director Lynn Grant told the meeting the organization has begun using a reserve fund it accumulated during the COVID-19 pandemic when travel was curtailed.

“In about four years’ time, it’s going to be crunch time,” he said.

Then, CCA will have to cut back activities or seek a revenue increase. He noted that Canadian producers pay less than one-quarter of one percent in checkoff compared to other commodities that pay more.

Grant also suggested that SCA will need the full 75-cent increase to keep operating.

Yorga said associations may have to look at how they are spending the money they have. SSGA is a voluntary membership organization. The provincial checkoff collected by SCA is refundable, but the national portion is not.

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