Cypress County declares state of agricultural disaster again

By Medicine Hat News on June 8, 2022.

Cypress County has declared a state of agricultural disaster.

The county made the announcement in a Tuesday release, noting that despite the recent rain, years of drought conditions have taken a toll on local farmers and their crops.

“We’ve had a bunch of rain in the last few days, but some (areas) haven’t had any,” Cypress County Reeve Dan Hamilton said during Tuesday’s council meeting. “We’re trying to work as a region in southern Alberta for this drought issue.”

It’s the second year in a row Cypress County has declared the state of disaster, with several councillors expressing concern over factors impacting agriculture such as extreme heat, wind and a lack of precipitation, according to the release.

The release adds the decision was made to bring awareness to the current conditions as well as signal a need for relief to the provincial and federal governments.

“Agricultural businesses could be forced to shut down without assistance which would compound food chain problems in the future,” reads the release. “The Alberta Crop Report showed either poor (36.5 %) or fair (49.7 %) pasture growing conditions as of May 31 for the south part of the province.”

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