Poplar Bluff Organic Farms east of Calgary depends on irrigation for their crops.
However, according to owner Rosemary Wotske, her staff just couldn’t keep up during the extreme heat.
Rosemary Wotske, owner of Poplar Bluff Organics. July 5, 2021.
Bruce Aalhus/Global News
“Even so with irrigation this spring, we would put an inch of water on and it would go to this depth and everything below would be powder. It was that dry,” she said.
“So it’s hard to get enough water on the ground to soak in, when you get a hot, dry wind right behind it, it’s gone before you know.”
The farm grows primarily root vegetables, which don’t typically thrive in high heat.
“Potatoes stop growing at 30 C, other vegetables are a little more resilient, but we are normally set up for cool-season vegetables because that’s usually what we have here. So all those cool-season things were like: what’s going on? So yeah, we didn’t have a lot of growth,” said Wotske.
According to Wotske, that disruption in the growth can decrease the quality of vegetables on the market. She says consumers may notice that come fall.
“It has impacts on yield of course, and on quality, because of plants under stress. They’ll put out chemicals to protect themselves. Often they’re bitter compounds, so the quality’s not great,” said Wotske.
According to Sandeep Nain with the Gateway Research Organization, the high temperatures caused some crops to ripen faster, reducing the quality at the end of the season.
“I’m seeing a lot of stunting in the crops — you can see the early maturity is coming in the crops due to this heat stress,” said Nain.
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Nain says it’s not only vegetables that are impacted by the heat, crops such as canola have been stunted as well.
“So, all the crops are a little shortened in height and showing the symptoms of heat stress and showing the early flowering,” he said.
Cattle rancher Doug Wray says while his animals handle the heat OK, but their food source is put at risk when the high temperatures hit.
“For us to be in a situation where the pastures have almost stopped growing by the middle of June is pretty unique — it can happen in July and lots of times in August — but to have it that early in the season, you don’t have as much feed,” said Wray.
Doug Wray, owner, and co-manager of Wray Ranch. July 5, 2021.
Bruce Aalhus/Global News
In order to guarantee his hundreds of cattle are eating well, Wray put some up for auction. They were purchased by a ranch in Northern Alberta that has more feed.
Wray has made many adjustments on his ranch due to the low-moisture, including sending some cattle to land near Cochrane. However, that reduces productivity on his primary ranch, cutting into his profits.
“This ranch will send fewer pounds beef off this land base, which means… our profits will be down because of that,” said Wray.
“We’re probably going to see some increase in prices for beef.”
According to Environment and Climate Change Canada, the first week of July saw more rainfall in the Calgary area than the entire month of June, so producers are feeling relieved.
Wray said the grass on his pastures already looks greener.
“Now that we’ve had an inch of rain over the weekend and several showers we’re feeling a whole lot better. The temperature is 20 C cooler and we’ve got a little bit of moisture so that really improves the mood,” said Wray.
According to Nain, it’s not too late for the season to improve.
“Sometimes if the situation improves and we get enough moisture and cool weather to sustain the growth, we might be able to compensate back for some of the loss,” said Nain. “Just to pinpoint how much damage we’ve seen from this heatwave, we can’t put a number yet.”
In July 2020, the Calgary area saw more than 80 mm of rainfall. As of July 6, 2021, there’s been 38.3 mm.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
