It’s tough to predict the weather, and depending on who you ask, you’ll get a different answer. Some trust old-fashioned methods, such as those used by the Farmers Almanac to predict the weather, but it seems modern farmers are basing their farming decisions more on the marketplace and technology to stay competitive and make a living.
Most will agree that predicting the weather involves looking back and finding patterns through the years, depending on various environmental conditions, including rainfall, temperatures, and other factors.
According to its website, the Farmers Almanac claims to use a centuries-old top secret formula based on a “top-secret mathematical and astronomical formula, taking sunspot activity, tidal action, the position of the planet, and many other factors into consideration.”
“It appears that we are going to see a fair amount of spring precipitation. Summer looks drier. So, I think the crops will be OK – but some will depend on just how dry,” says Peter Geiger, editor of the Farmers’ Almanac in an e-mail.
Many southern Albertans wonder if we’ll have more bitterly cold weather. While Geiger won’t confirm we’ll have another deep freeze, he does say more cold is on the way.
“Your average last frost in Alberta varies depending upon the city. For Edmonton, it is May 7th and for Red Deer, it is May 25th. So, I expect that there will be more cold before summer,” says Geiger.
Less farmers seem to be relying on the Farmer’s Almanac, or even technologically advanced prediction methods used by meteorologists, Farmers are leaving as little to chance as possible when it comes to growing their crops, using modern technology to grow and harvest many times more land then previous generations.
“I think that anyone who is a farmer in southern Alberta, where the weather changes so rapidly and dramatically, probably fully realizes that predicting the weather beyond about this afternoon is pretty silly,” says Vince Ellert, an agriculture instructor at Lethbridge College.
2009 doesn’t look good, as the farming industry is certainly not immune to the affects of the recession.
“2008 was a very good year. It was a year that we really needed. The outlook for 2009 is it isn’t going to be as good, because of the world financial crisis, a lot of people are simply not going to be in the market,” says Ellert.
Ellert makes it very clear that the marketplace has become a big concern for farmers. Like everyone else, they need to make money to continue operating.
“Yields are one thing. The biggest thing is market price. If you could predict what the price of wheat’s going to be in September, you’d be very wealthy. We don’t know. The outlook isn’t very good because a lot of people don’t have the money,” says Ellert.
Ellert says there are less farmers harvest more land with the aid of technology, as a great deal of farmers, as many as two thirds, have given up due to economic conditions.
“Farmers have a great diversity of skills. A farmer is on his farm, not making a great living, he says ‘gosh, I can go to McMurray, use my welding skills, and make $35 bucks an hour’, it’s not a hard decision,” says Ellert.
In regards to the snow fall amounts we’ve had this past winter, Ellert says it didn’t do the farmers much good, aside from those that have livestock, as it gives the cattle plenty to drink.
“We want snow cover in the winter, to protect certain perennial crops from being frozen, and insulation value. Having your water sources for livestock full of water from spring runoff is extremely valuable. You can’t put cattle out in dry land range if there’s no water,” says Ellert.
Since modern farmers are managing much more last then older generations did, they have more land to farm on, and therefore yields they can make a profit on.
“Our living standards went up on the farm. There’s less dollars of profit per acre. The cost of vehicles, fertilizer, and everything. There’s no family that can survive on 1,600 acres of dry land anymore. Dry land farms are now 4-6,000 acres, because the dollar per acre is so much lower,” says Ellert.
Originally posted 2009-03-29 19:15:47. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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