Foodgrains harvest cancelled after devastating storm wipes out crops

Posted on August 20, 2026 by Sunny South News

By Kristine Jean
Sunny South News

As communities across the region prepare for the fall harvest, a storm that swept through Coaldale Tuesday evening wiped out entire crops and left many area farmers devastated. 

Late in the afternoon on Aug. 11, a southeast moving storm south of Calgary hit several towns and outlying areas including Claresholm, Nobleford, Barons, Coaldale, Barnwell and Taber, leaving gardens and fields damaged by hail, localized flooding and various degrees of destruction in several communities. 

The Coaldale-Lethbridge Foodgrains Growing Project (CLFGP) was hit especially hard as the storm wiped out entire crops in the region, including barley, sugar beets, corn, carrots, canola and potatoes.         

It was the first time in the CLFGP’s 20-year history that they’ve been hit by a storm just before harvest. 

“It’s devastating. It went from looking like a phenomenal crop – every year we have a record crop and this year we won’t because there’s no crop left,” said Daniel Donkersgoed with the Coaldale-Lethbridge Foodgrains Growing Project. 

The storm forced the cancellation of the annual Coaldale-Lethbridge Foodgrains Harvest, that was scheduled for Aug. 25, just east of the Readymade Community Centre. The organization shared the news in posts on social media, stating they were “hit pretty hard with hail” Tuesday night and announced Thursday morning that they are cancelling this year’s harvest celebration because their crop was “completely destroyed.”    

“It was quite a devastating blow. We were planning on swathing on Tuesday. If the storm had come a week later, we would have been ok,” said Donkersgoed, pointing out all the hard work this season that was washed away instantly and the variety of crops that were destroyed. “That whole Readymade area got quite a beating,” he added.   

While the majority of crops were destroyed, there are some that may survive, he noted, which the CLFGP will attend to in the coming days as part of a “salvage operation.” 

“The straw is still there so we’ll be able to swath that and to sell straw bale,” said Donkersgoed. “All of the barley that was there is knocked down and on the ground, so it’s gone. We’ll see if it’s worth combining, but if we do combine it, it’ll be a significantly reduced yield.” 

As with previous Foodgrains Growing Project harvests, buyers have always stepped up, shown support and have been very generous, said Donkersgoed. However this year, with the cancellation of the annual harvest fundraiser, the impacts are farther reaching. 

“Our supporters are excellent. We raise a lot of funds at that event, we raise a lot of funds by selling the crop,” he said noting that while they will be able to cover their expenses for the year, there won’t be much to give to those suffering hunger around the world. “At the harvest barbecue itself we have people from all over come to support it – there’s the barbecue, there’s ice cream, there’s drinks, there’s community fellowship. It’s a great event to socialize and to celebrate why we’re all here – we’re here to help people around the world that can’t eat.” 

Despite the devastation of this year’s crop and harvest, Donkersgoed said the Coaldale-Lethbridge Foodgrains Growing Project is looking ahead to an important milestone and are planning a celebration this fall, to mark the organization’s 20th anniversary, where they hope to recoup some of the funds lost from this year’s cancelled harvest.      

“We’re hopeful. We’ve never done a different event like this (that’s) not a harvest day. We’ve been going for 20 years and every year for 20 years, the big event has been the Harvest barbecue,” said Donkersgoed. “But we hope we can still raise a bunch of funds and we can celebrate – celebrate that we’ve been able to do this for 20 years, celebrate that it took 20 years for a tragedy like this to happen and that next year, we can try again.”