Cattle in Cypress county are pictured in May 2016. - NEWS FILE PHOTO
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For the sixth time in seven years, cattle producers in southeast Alberta will qualify for federal tax deferral measures to push off some taxes owed on livestock during a drought year.
An initial map released by Agriculture Canada shows only the most westerly portions for Southwest Saskatchewan will be covered by the measure ranchers typically used when they sell portions of breeding stock rather than secure higher priced winter feed.
The measure, known as the livestock tax deferral program, allows producers to carry some income from sales of cattle in certain regions ahead to the following tax year, rather than face an unexpectedly high tax bill in a drought year.
In Alberta, most regions east of the mountains and south of Camrose are among initial prescribed regions.
In Saskatchewan, all RMs immediately along the Alberta boundary are on the list, along with a wide area west of Saskatoon and the RM of Frontier, near Montana.
Not included, however, are the RMs of Fox Valley, Big Stick, Piapot or Gull Lake.
Another cluster is located in central Manitoba.
In southern Alberta and parts of Saskatchewan, crop analysts stated that rain in June was not enough to reverse pasture left stunted by a very dry 2021 and winter of 2022.
Alberta stated its second cut dry land hay estimate in the south was 1.2 tonnes per acre, equal to the provincial average, with irrigated yield of 1.5 tonnes lower than the long-term average.
Cypress County has been a prescribed region in the tax measure every year since 2015 with the exception of 2020.
