More than 10 alerts have been issued in Alberta due to overland flooding this month including one in Rocky View County. 

With the massive amounts of flooding reported throughout the province many local farmers will now have their seeding season delayed by up to 3-4 weeks. 
 
Local Farmer Blaine Gatez who owns land near Crossfield says the flooding is causing a unique challenge. 
 
"In this case, we are probably looking at a start date for May 5th or maybe, May 10th depending on the precipitation ahead. That is anywhere on a typical season 15-25 days late on our start time."
 
Gatez says there have been many years they have started on April 10th to 15th so this delay is not quite a month off schedule but it's at least twenty days off their schedule at this point.
 
Any kind of a late start is not an issue if the summer season gives the crop enough time to mature properly by nice amounts of heat units and good moisture to maintain the crop through the summer season it won't be as detrimental. 
 
"There is pretty much a ratio that any time you get past May 5th you start to run a risk of crop loss of quality and then eventually quantity".
 
The reasoning behind the loss of quality and quantity is because of the later maturing crop flowering in intense heat in the summer which can affect the crops yield. Fall frost is also an issue that crops planted late face.
 
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