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Ranching
and Farming on the Milk River Ridge
Once the exclusive realm of some of
southern Alberta's largest cattle
ranches, the short grass ridge that
divides the Missouri-Mississippi River
basin and the Saskatchewan River basin
is now a mixed agricultural centre
of farming and ranching.
Water
on Demand: Irrigation Methods
in Southern Alberta
While early ranchers and
farmers in southern Alberta
knew that the soils and
growing season of southern
Alberta were suitable for
agriculture, they were also
aware that inconsistent
levels of rainfall made
farming a risky proposition.
As early as 1887, the railway
entrepreneur E.T. Galt joined
forces with a group of Mormon
settlers, led by C.A. Card,
to launch an irrigation
system for the Cardston-Lethbridge
area.
The St. Mary's Canal,
excavated by hand in 1898,
was the first step in
the St. Mary Irrigation
District, a massive system
that now includes 2 dams,
413 kilometres of canals,
and 3 principal storage
reservoirs holding almost
600,000,000 cubic metres
of water. The Raymond
Irrigation District, irrigating
46,500 acres, is part
of the larger St. Mary
system, which serves approximately
520,000 acres of southern
Alberta farmland. The
entire St. Mary Irrigation
District stretches from
the Waterton Dam at Hillspring
to Medicine Hat, and is
one of 4 major Irrigation
Districts in southern
Alberta. (While 99% of
Canadian farmers rely
on natural precipitation
for farming and ranching,
water withdrawal for irrigation
is the country's 4th largest
consumptive use of water;
over 70% of irrigational
withdrawals go to southern
Alberta and southern Saskatchewan.)
Raymond area farmers
now receive water on demand,
using 2 irrigation methods
that supply fields with
an even, continuous flow:
-Wheel-line sprinklers
- A pipe and sprinkler
system is attached to
a motor-driven wheel that
moves the system over
the field. The movement
of the piping must be
closely monitored.
-Pivot irrigation -
A system of pipes
and sprinklers mounted
on motor-driven wheels
moves continuously in
a circular fashion. The
pivot method eliminates
the need to monitor the
system's direction.
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Cattle and Crops: Cattle crossbreeds
account for the greatest number of
cattle raised in the area surrounding
the farming centre of Raymond, midway
between the city of Lethbridge and
the Milk River. Cross bred calves
are sold at auction to various feedlots
throughout southern Alberta, while
purebred cattle, such as Hereford,
Black and Red Angus, Simmental, and
Charlois are sold at specialty auction
markets or rancher-sponsored production
sales. Other farming operations in
the Raymond area include quota-controlled
poultry and dairy farms, hog operations,
and specialty livestock such as sheep,
llamas and ostriches.
With the assistance of a sophisticated
regional irrigation system, part of
the massive St. Mary Irrigation project,
farmers grow hay, cereal crops and
silage crops. Barley is the largest
crop, followed by barley, alfalfa,
canola, hard spring wheat, mustard
and oats.
Pinhorn Public
Grazing
Straddling the Milk River in its lower
Alberta reaches (directly south of Medicine
Hat), the 30,672 hectare Pinhorn Provincial
Grazing Reserve is the largest community
pasture in Alberta. The Reserve, named
for a noted North West Mounted Police
veterinary inspector, was formally established
in 1962 at the request of local farmers
and ranchers. On their behalf, the Alberta
government purchased the land of a local
ranch, adding the Pinhorn Reserve to
a provincial inventory of public grazing
lands that includes the Reserve of Bow
Island, Sage Creek and Seven Persons.
Public grazing lands are designed to
relieve grazing demands on more productive
private farm property, allowing farmers
to use their own land for crop and hay
production.
Cattle are grazed on the Reserve
from mid-May to mid-October, with
a first round-up in September, and
a main round-up in October. Pastures
are large, with some exceeding 2,000
hectares. Lands lie on both sides
of the Milk River, with the north
side providing grazing for about 800
head of cattle, and the south side
supporting 2,000 head.
The Pinhorn Reserve is now managed
by the Pinhorn Grazing Association.
Like all provincial grazing reserves,
Pinhorn permits multiple public uses
of non-grazed areas, including hunting
for deer, antelope and upland game
birds, canoeing on the Milk River,
birdwatching, and hiking. Access to
the Kennedy Coulee Ecological Reserve
is through Pinhorn's southern portion.
Oil and gas exploration is also permitted
on the Reserve.
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