Many local farmers are in desperate need of moisture, the county says

“If we don’t get enough rain by June 1, there will be a lot of young farmers, and some old farmers will have to give up their holdings and go bankrupt.”

Statistics from Alberta agriculture show that last year’s rainfall in the Medicine Hat area has halved from the usual total, occurring less than once every 25 years.

Cypress County Councilor Dustin Wosler says it takes about 20 inches of wet snow.

“Schuler, Hilda, Irwin and everywhere in the arid areas of the county … they’ve had hard years, and they need a year to pull them out, otherwise they’ll be in bad shape.”

And for some it would mean a long series of setbacks.

“It will be the number five year with a bad growing season,” said Wasler.

Weather experts are hoping for the coming months with a warming trend possibly coming in April.

“And it should help thaw the ground and prepare the ground for soil moisture when we see that the rainfall is getting heavier,” said Drew Lerner, an agricultural meteorologist with World Weather Inc.

Fossler, however, is concerned that moisture could get in at the wrong time.

“Since our growing season starts in late April, starting in June, when we don’t have the moisture to start sowing, we still won’t get anything,” Fossler said, adding, “I really want it to rain, and I hope so. that everyone else is too ”.