Irrigation season starts in southern Alberta

“There's a lot of math honestly that's going on behind the scenes making sure we have enough water to last us through the season." Davie explained "Because we're only in May ..."

Allison Davie of North Paddock Farms is happy to see the water flowing but there are still a lot of unknowns.

“As irrigation season goes on, we’re going to make changes to it depending on how much rain we get,” explained Davie. “We’re still going to try to get water on crops that we can, focusing on the high-value crops like our potatoes.”

David Westwood from Saint Mary River Irrigation District says it will be a demanding season ahead, but he is still optimistic.

“So, if we see what we saw last week and even more precipitation into June, that definitely could help farmers out, also might allow us to raise our allocation at some point in the season,” Westwood suggested. “But right now, we really need to be able to see how the snowpack melts off, see if we get some additional precipitation, before we even really consider that.”

According to the City of Lethbridge, the Old Man reservoir is at 42 per cent, St Mary sits at 49 per cent and Waterton is down to 23 per cent. Normal storage is usually at least around the 60 per cent mark for all three.

Davie says they’ve had to realign their priorities.

“Any of the pulses that are using a higher water allotment, unfortunately, we’re not growing those on our farm this year. Just so we can use the available irrigation allocation for our potatoes and our seed canola and our timothy hay,” said Davie. “But the main focus right now is our potatoes.”

Even with a plan to move ahead, Davie explains this growing season will be tough.