Farmer's need the rain but can there be too much?

Over the past few days, Strathmore and Wheatland County has seen significant rainfall. 

But how much of a good thing is too much, will we see something similar to the floods in 2013 that affected Calgary and High River, or is there a potential for crops to be washed out? 

Local farmer Herman Praeker from Praeker Farms Limited had this to say about our recent dump of rain, 

“You know we get the odd downpour, but it's actually been a nice rain, and it was soaking good so it's not washing out crops. You might get the odd draw that would wash out something but it's not washing seed away.”

Strathmore and Wheatland County seem to be doing better than Calgary, however, with the city currently under a rainfall warning and a state of local emergency after seeing 26.1 mm of rain on Monday.   Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek has stated that for now, the state of local emergency is a ‘precautionary measure.’

The Old Farmers Almanac from Jun 10-16, predicted scattered showers and that trend will continue into Jun 17-24. Overall for the month of June The Old Farmers Almanac states that we should expect 60mm (20mm below avg) of rain.

However, the forecast is still calling for more rain over the next 24 hours with rain expected to taper off by Wednesday afternoon in the Strathmore and Wheatland County area. 

Seeing this much rain in this area Praeker says is not unusual for this time of year and it is welcome, "Our soils are pretty forgiving, so this type of rain will be stored in the clay and the soil and can be used later on, but definitely little showers now and then always make the best crop."

According to the Government of Manitoba, the amount of rain needed to threaten farmers' livelihoods is much higher than what is expected for Wheatland County. 

“Under flooded conditions, 36 to 48 hours is often the tolerable limit for plants. Under water-logged conditions, crop tolerance and adaptation are plant species dependent. Most annual crops can tolerate 3 to 7 days of water stress.”

There is a brief end in sight to this rainy weather,  if the forecast stays the way it is today, Thursday should see the end of this rainy cycle with the possibility of rain returning on the weekend. 

Keep up to date with the area's full five day forecast at strathmorenow.com/weather.