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In addition, the smoke from B.C. forest fires that blanketed much of Alberta last summer had a negative effect on some crops, blocking the direct sunlight they need to mature.

“The canola just didn’t ripen,” Sawyer said. “There are many, many farmers who have never experienced having such poor quality canola.”

Photo by Brendan Miller / Postmedia

Beef producers were also affected by the drought conditions last year. Some ran out of grass on their pasture land and had to purchase feed at a 20 to 25 per cent premium to get their cow herds through the winter.

“The south and east side of the province was very bad,” said Alberta Beef Producers chair Charlie Christie, who operates a mixed farm near Trochu. “People had to liquidate some cows and they had to do so at a deflated price, because other people didn’t have the feed to snap these cows up.”

According to Statistics Canada, farm operating expenses increased 6.5 per cent nationally in 2018 to $50.6 billion, the largest percentage increase since 2012, driven largely by feed costs as well as rising fuel, interest and other input costs.

Livestock revenues edged down 0.2 per cent to $25 billion in 2018, while crop revenues nationally went up 0.9 per cent to $35 billion. That increase was driven largely by healthy wheat prices as well as new revenue from licensed cannabis producers.

However, some other commodities saw significant decreases in revenue. Canola receipts fell 6.5 per cent (and 16.1 per cent in Alberta) while lentil revenues were down 35 per cent, due in large part to new tariffs applied by the government of India in late 2017 that have had the effect of sharply lowering prices. Prices for dry peas, another commodity affected by the Indian tariffs, fell 17 per cent in 2018 while revenues fell almost 20 per cent.