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Incoming Alberta rains good for farmers, unlikely to cause major flooding says meteorologist

Alberta's seasonal 'June monsoon' is expected to be kicked into high gear Monday afternoon, with Environment Canada issuing warnings for heavy rainfall across much of southern Alberta, including Banff National Park, Kananaskis and Calgary. 

According to a special weather statement released early Sunday morning by Environment Canada, up to 100 mm of rain could fall by Wednesday, particularly on the foothills and eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains. Current projections place the greatest rainfall amounts near Kananaskis. 

Kyle Brittain, the Alberta bureau chief for the Weather Network, said that while this week's prolonged rainfall could put the province past its typical monthly average for June, he doesn't expect it to cause severe flooding.

That's because historical dry conditions across the southern part of the province have led to a lower than average water table, said Brittain, leaving substantial room in the ground for moisture to be absorbed.

"[The] exceptional drought in southern Alberta, that actually gives us quite a good buffer against major flooding right now."

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Cleaning Sheep Barns & Setting Up Chutes

Video: Cleaning Sheep Barns & Setting Up Chutes

Indoor sheep farming in winter at pre-lambing time requires that, at Ewetopia Farms, we need to clean out the barns and manure in order to keep the sheep pens clean, dry and fresh for the pregnant ewes to stay healthy while indoors in confinement. In today’s vlog, we put fresh bedding into all of the barns and we remove manure from the first groups of ewes due to lamb so that they are all ready for lambs being born in the next few days. Also, in preparation for lambing, we moved one of the sorting chutes to the Coveralls with the replacement ewe lambs. This allows us to do sorting and vaccines more easily with them while the barnyard is snow covered and hard to move sheep safely around in. Additionally, it frees up space for the second groups of pregnant ewes where the chute was initially.