Alberta Agriculture

“The majority of what we sell gets picked, packed and shipped within the same day ... there is no ability to weather challenging times and difficult storms by building inventory,” Hamer said.

The cut helped even out an oversupply of milk that was forcing some farmers to dump their milk for lack of anywhere to send it.

After restaurants closed, Sturgeon County egg farmer Paul Wurz immediately began fielding calls from grocery stores as far away as Slave Lake who were seeing an uptick in demand for eggs.

Cutting their spring and summer quotas means farmers can give processing plants some more breathing room.

“I’m worried about the growers, the families – the mental stress and the mental strain on the family farms. It’s hard on the spouse, it’s hard on the kids, it’s hard on the workers. That’s where the untold story is – the mental stress and the financial stress on these family farms,” Hochstein said.

'I think we are in a little bit of trouble,' said Chris Sloan, who runs a large cow-calf operation north of St. Paul.

“This is as bad as we’ve seen it,” said Alberta pork farmer Jurgen Preugschas.