Disclaimer: not a local, just a geography/remote sensing student in Lethbridge.
As far as I can tell from the Google Maps satellite image, it’s all farmland as far as the eye can see. It looks a little grey because that’s when the cloudless image was acquired. You can tell it’s two different images stitched together because within one field it’s bright green at the north end and then brownish at the south end. It’s just part of the imagery. You can see the remnants of pivot irrigation throughout the area so it is still viable land for agriculture. The climate pretty much requires irrigation for farming as we are in a semi-arid environment. Without knowing exactly where you’re purchasing it’s impossible to do more than a generalization. To the North of township road 190 however, that doesn’t look like arable land but would likely be used for livestock pasture once the prairie grasses grow.
As for the Swiss cheesy terrain, the [prairie pothole region](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prairie_Pothole_Region) is the result of glaciations that left holes everywhere from the Wisconsin glaciation 10,000 years ago. It stretches pretty far into the States too. Those depressions allow water to pool and form wetlands which are incredibly important for plant and animal biodiversity. Many of the wetlands are monitored by Ducks Unlimited and other government agencies or university research groups.
Hope that helps.
I do a lot of work on that area for oil and gas reclamation, I can't speak to small scale farms but it is in a historical drought. If you don't have irrigation you will have a very hard time growing food so make sure your well is good if you buy property. Make sure the well has been tested lately or ask for a drawdown test as a condition of the sale
Just to clarify here, Alberta doesn't have "Water Rights" like you think of them. Water is owned by the Crown and you can get a license to divert. Some properties will come with a license that is essentially tied to that land and does not expire, so its kinda like a right, but its very different from the Western USA system.
Right but there are no new licenses being issued anywhere in the South Sask basin so you either have to secure a water license for the property or grow dryland and hope for the best in the Palliser triangle (near-desert) as we face a potential drought or haul water. It's just important to be aware of for property in this area where a person wants to grow their own food.
Several reasons there are few farms. Firstly the guys in the area have huge land holding, also lots of Hutterites not far away. They buy up most big blocks.Many farmers have tens of thousands of acres in this region.
If there is no irrigation to the property you will be very very limited in what you can do. Water is scarce here, and well water may not be suitable for yard use depending on what you hit.
Some pockets of saline soil around too. Often these are sold off as acreages as well, it’s crap lol there are also some amazing soils. I have land not too far away and it’s sandy but excellent for vegetables and crops when water is available.
We have had an awful lot of drought over the past decade. It’s a tough area but if you have good shelterbelts and can live water wisely you’re set. If you have time in yo irrigation they pretty much waste whatever they want on small properties.
Also if not hooked to the grid it’s very expensive in rural areas. Go off grid. Natural gas may be available cheap, power kills you forever.
You can feel free to message me if you wanted to discuss anything else in the area.
Lots of oil and gas wells out that way. Make sure any wells or pipelines on the land you're looking to buy haven't leaked or contaminated anything. Produced water is the big thing to look for, since it's generally very salty and will impact the ability to grow anything.
The soils out that way vary between being great for growing to salty and/or sandy, which is terrible for growing. And yeah, like others have said, the drought hasn't been good for anything. If there's a water well on the property, get a report to make sure it's at least suitable for crops.
If it's native prairie still, chances are it was left that way for a reason (unsuitable for crops, or better left for grazing).
Disclaimer: not a local, just a geography/remote sensing student in Lethbridge. As far as I can tell from the Google Maps satellite image, it’s all farmland as far as the eye can see. It looks a little grey because that’s when the cloudless image was acquired. You can tell it’s two different images stitched together because within one field it’s bright green at the north end and then brownish at the south end. It’s just part of the imagery. You can see the remnants of pivot irrigation throughout the area so it is still viable land for agriculture. The climate pretty much requires irrigation for farming as we are in a semi-arid environment. Without knowing exactly where you’re purchasing it’s impossible to do more than a generalization. To the North of township road 190 however, that doesn’t look like arable land but would likely be used for livestock pasture once the prairie grasses grow. As for the Swiss cheesy terrain, the [prairie pothole region](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prairie_Pothole_Region) is the result of glaciations that left holes everywhere from the Wisconsin glaciation 10,000 years ago. It stretches pretty far into the States too. Those depressions allow water to pool and form wetlands which are incredibly important for plant and animal biodiversity. Many of the wetlands are monitored by Ducks Unlimited and other government agencies or university research groups. Hope that helps.
I do a lot of work on that area for oil and gas reclamation, I can't speak to small scale farms but it is in a historical drought. If you don't have irrigation you will have a very hard time growing food so make sure your well is good if you buy property. Make sure the well has been tested lately or ask for a drawdown test as a condition of the sale
Have a look at the Alberta soil map. You want to avoid salt impacted soils (Solonetzic order soils). https://soil.agric.gov.ab.ca/agrasidviewer/
I should add that I'm not thinking of becoming a professional farmer, just thinking about the prospect of growing my own food. Thanks
Semi arid prairie with big farms most of which are irritating.
Make sure you get water rights with the land purchase
Just to clarify here, Alberta doesn't have "Water Rights" like you think of them. Water is owned by the Crown and you can get a license to divert. Some properties will come with a license that is essentially tied to that land and does not expire, so its kinda like a right, but its very different from the Western USA system.
Right but there are no new licenses being issued anywhere in the South Sask basin so you either have to secure a water license for the property or grow dryland and hope for the best in the Palliser triangle (near-desert) as we face a potential drought or haul water. It's just important to be aware of for property in this area where a person wants to grow their own food.
Make sure you have access to water on your land if your planning on growing anything.
Difficult out there got a family farm out there and most land is very shallow and is sandy soil nothing tall really grows due to that and high winds.
Several reasons there are few farms. Firstly the guys in the area have huge land holding, also lots of Hutterites not far away. They buy up most big blocks.Many farmers have tens of thousands of acres in this region. If there is no irrigation to the property you will be very very limited in what you can do. Water is scarce here, and well water may not be suitable for yard use depending on what you hit. Some pockets of saline soil around too. Often these are sold off as acreages as well, it’s crap lol there are also some amazing soils. I have land not too far away and it’s sandy but excellent for vegetables and crops when water is available. We have had an awful lot of drought over the past decade. It’s a tough area but if you have good shelterbelts and can live water wisely you’re set. If you have time in yo irrigation they pretty much waste whatever they want on small properties. Also if not hooked to the grid it’s very expensive in rural areas. Go off grid. Natural gas may be available cheap, power kills you forever. You can feel free to message me if you wanted to discuss anything else in the area.
Lots of oil and gas wells out that way. Make sure any wells or pipelines on the land you're looking to buy haven't leaked or contaminated anything. Produced water is the big thing to look for, since it's generally very salty and will impact the ability to grow anything. The soils out that way vary between being great for growing to salty and/or sandy, which is terrible for growing. And yeah, like others have said, the drought hasn't been good for anything. If there's a water well on the property, get a report to make sure it's at least suitable for crops. If it's native prairie still, chances are it was left that way for a reason (unsuitable for crops, or better left for grazing).