A Heffley Creek cattle rancher is advising people to plan ahead and be prepared as dry conditions are being felt across B.C.
Paul Devick is a director with the B.C. Cattlemen’s Association (BCCA) covering the Thompson region in the province’s Interior. When asked if he was aware of drought conditions in the region, he said, “Big time, big time.”
Devick said their irrigation reservoirs were sitting at just over 50 per cent fullness.
“Way down from normal. We’ll be rationing irrigation water big time,” he said, adding they’ve already had to haul water to livestock on pastures with no water in them due to dried-up dugouts, creeks and potholes.
Devick is the chairman of the Heffley Irrigation District, which he said services 12 ranches and farms in the area. He said they were going through the process of figuring out how much water they’d each have to irrigate, trying to divide it up fairly between producers. He said it’s between 1,500 and 2,000 acres that the district services.
“It’s dire straits,” he said.
On Monday, May 25, the BCCA put out a press release saying that, in response to early signs of drought conditions in the southern Interior, they are urging the province to focus on long-term investment in landscape-level management of watersheds alongside stewardship partners, with a priority to immediately stop all plans to decommission existing dams and water storage infrastructure.
“The B.C. Cattlemen’s Association sees a practical path forward to help protect the critical flows needed for both fish habitat and essential livestock watering. We are calling on conservation groups, First Nations, and local governments to join us in urging the province to immediately halt any planned decommissioning of water-storage infrastructure,” the association said.
Devick noted that if one looks at the North Thompson River, they’d think there was a lot of water because of high streamflows. But, he said, once you get into the hills, there’s nothing.
B.C.’s drought portal is noting dry conditions across much of the province, with the Okanagan listed as under the most severe conditions at level five. The North Thompson is listed as level one, meaning “abnormally dry,” with the surrounding regions, Lower Thompson and South Thompson, both at level three. This data is from May 29.
In the May 25 BCCA release, they said they are increasingly concerned about ongoing dry conditions and have been monitoring the situation on ranches across the province for the past four weeks.
“With the exception of the Peace region, all areas are experiencing moderate to severe dry conditions,” according to the association.
Devick said his family has been ranching in the region since 1906. Aside from some tough times his father faced in the 1930s, he said he’s never seen conditions like this.
He said “Mother Nature is pretty mean sometimes,” and chalked the dry conditions up to a lack of snow over the winter, which he said was the biggest factor.
“There was absolutely zero runoff in the creeks around here this year,” Devick said. “Normally, this time of year, creeks are overflowing — they’re past their peak, but the creeks are all gushing this time of year. But there are a lot of them that are even dry.”
Though he said Mother Nature can be mean, he also said she “can be pretty nice to you once in a while,” noting they could get rain all June, and everything would be fine. He said it’s a day-to-day and a week-to-week type of situation. Though he said he’s seen some of the grass and hayfields begin to take damage, he said a couple of inches of rain would make a world of difference.
As for how the conditions would impact his operations and business, the first thing he mentioned was the need to ration irrigation water.
“Trying to get away with as little irrigation as possible on the fields, so we can spread it out over the summer.”
As for watering the cattle, they have a tanker they can use to haul water to pastures. He said time will tell if the range grass holds up, and said they’re planning ahead in anticipation of not having grass in the fall. They’re also talking about buying feed early.
He said some people have begun talking about downsizing their herds and looking to get tax deferrals from the government if they do so.
“It’s a financial crisis as well as an industry crisis for the number of cows,” he said.
“The number of cows has been going down steadily for the last five years in Canada, and this is just another kick at the heart of the industry. People are going to have to sell cows to make it through with what they got.”
He affirmed they would need to make adaptations, and said it isn’t a problem with a single solution, but a whole network of problems. He said he hoped the provincial and federal governments would be able to support them with some of the costs to help alleviate some of the issues, though he added he’s not hopeful on that front.
“Plan ahead and be prepared,” he said. “If you’re not prepared, you’re going to get hammered hard. And if you are prepared, well, then you’ve got a chance at least.”