One of many farmers at the Prince George Farmers Market. If the dry winter continues it could be challenging to overcome another drought during the farming season.

By Tommy Osborne

Farming drought

Recent snowfall much needed for farmers amid potential drought

Mar 2, 2024 | 1:45 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – Prince George and the area has seen significant snowfall in the last two weeks, but it likely isn’t enough to save farmers from what’s looking to be another drought during the farming season. According to the B.C. Government, as of March 1, the Fraser River Snow Basin sits at 70% of its normal capacity. While this is higher than a couple weeks ago, local farmers say the effects of previous drought season are starting to compound.

“The growth is severely affected, we probably only harvested about half of what we should have should have been harvesting,” said Del Myers of October Farm.

“It’s been brutal up here in Prince George in the last couple of summers. We struggled for moisture. We have some irrigation, but we were mostly reliant just on the rain in the past. It looks like if this continues, we’ll have to just change and start irrigating,” said Philip Myatovic of Cariboo Growers Farm.

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Switching to irrigation would be quite costly to Myatovic, who estimates that would be in the tens of thousands of dollars. In an industry with already thin margins, a cost that significant could be a significant challenge to overcome. As for Myers, the drought conditions have led to his hay yields being much lower than usual, so if we don’t get more snow or rain his wallet could take quite the hit too.

“We’re dipping into our reserve of hay, fortunately, we had a reserve of hay so we don’t have to pay two or three times the price. But if we have another dry year, then we’re going to have to buy some of that expensive hay too,” Myers said.

There is still time for more snow before the farming season starts, so it’s possible we get the required amount of moisture to offset a potential drought and see healthy yields, but for now concern is rising that it could once again be a dry year.

“I’m just paranoid with the forest fires that we might get if we don’t get the moisture. We need this moisture, and it looks like we’ll have to fight for it if nature isn’t going to supply it,” said Myatovic

“One of the problems with the last year was that in addition to not having much rainfall, we had a very rapid snow melt and that snow didn’t have as much opportunity to sink into the ground as it might have had in a better year. So there were two strikes against us,” said Myers.

While farmers have been adapting to dry conditions and forming contingency plans, for now, all that can be done is hope that we see more snow.

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