![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/indicator-big.gif\")
<\/p>\nJacksteit said while recent snow has helped bring moisture levels up slightly, it hasn\u2019t been enough to make up for years of dry conditions below the surface.<\/p>\n
\t<\/p>\n
\u201cIt really wasn\u2019t that significant. We didn\u2019t have an abundance of moisture,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Jacksteit said the conditions heading into this year\u2019s growing season look very similar to last year, which is raising concerns for many farmers in the region. He said winter crops came in well last year, but there wasn\u2019t enough moisture to keep them growing in the spring.<\/p>\n
\u201cAbout a month and a half into the growing season, they were writing our winter crops off already,\u201d Jacksteit explained.<\/p>\n
He said the uncertainty producers are experiencing is being compounded by ongoing financial pressure, which has only worsened after nearly a decade of drought.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow if you\u2019re in crop insurance, you\u2019re taking a loss on your farm, and it\u2019s pretty hard to avoid that,\u201d he said. \u201cOur average yields have continued to drop, and grain prices are down too, so your coverage is less but your costs are still there.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said current support programs aren\u2019t built to handle so many bad years.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn our situation, where you\u2019ve had like nine bad years, AgriStability don\u2019t work,\u201d Jacksteit said. \u201cWe\u2019re dependent on crop insurance, and it\u2019s just simply not enough to keep farmers out of financial difficulty.\u201d<\/p>\n
The long-term impact is already being felt across the region. Jacksteit said some producers are choosing to step away from farming altogether, opting to rent out their land rather than continue operating at a loss.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s been land for sale, but you\u2019re not seeing young farmers in our area being able to buy this land when it comes available,\u201d Jacksteit said. \u201cThat\u2019s how a family farm continues, and that\u2019s how they\u2019re lost.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added that rising equipment costs and market uncertainty are also making it harder for producers to plan for the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the farm, no matter what we do, everybody\u2019s telling us what it\u2019s going to cost,\u201d Jacksteit said. \u201cAnd when we go to sell our product, they\u2019re telling us what we\u2019re going to get as well, so we\u2019ve got no control over anything in the market.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the challenges, Jacksteit said farmers in his area are moving ahead with seeding, hoping for a turnaround after years of difficult conditions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to fight through it for another year, and we\u2019re going to hope for the best, like we do every year,\u201d Jacksteit said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut you can only take so much, and then there\u2019s just nothing left at the end of the day.\u201d<\/p>\n
As planting continues, producers say the success of this season and the future of many farms now depends on how much rain arrives in the months ahead.<\/p>\n
by Jacob Bamhour, CJME News Staff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jacksteit said while recent snow has helped bring moisture levels up slightly, it hasn\u2019t been enough to make…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":632613,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66],"class_list":["post-632612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=632612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632612\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/632613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=632612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=632612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=632612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}