His voice was tinged with apprehension early this week.
Jim Lorette has 1,000 acres of land to seed this spring. When interviewed June 7, he still had not planted the first kernel.
Lorette farms near Storthoaks, an area of southeastern Saskatchewan punctuated with potholes. Those potholes are brimming with water.
“Even the old-timers say they’ve never seen anything like this before.”
It rained off and on in the Storthoaks area last week. More rain was forecast for this week.
Lorette said his area had about 280 millimetres of rain in May. The land is saturated, and farmers remain worried they won’t get a crop seeded this year.
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“If we don’t get some federal help, a lot of farmers here just figure they’re done,” said Lorette, reeve of the local municipality.
The rain this spring kept many farmers off their fields in southeastern Saskatchewan and southwestern Manitoba. There are fears the wet weather could prove disastrous for farmers and farming communities.
Saskatchewan agriculture minister Eric Upshall toured the affected area June 4, spending part of the day in an airplane, where he saw what he described as a mosaic of land and water.
“If a farmer has no crop in after the first weekend in June, I think you’d call that a disaster.”
Changes are being considered for Saskatchewan crop insurance to give farmers more leeway, Upshall said. But he added federal funds are needed to help farmers afflicted by the wet weather.
Upshall wants the federal government to allow farmers a one-time penalty-free withdrawal from the Net Income Stabilization Account this year.
In southwestern Manitoba, Arthur-Virden MLA Jim Downey’s constituency is among the worst affected areas.
“The people are against the wall. They’ve never seen anything like this. They’re traditionally used to farming in a dryland situation. They normally farm to conserve moisture.”
He said Ottawa must lend a hand because the livelihood of farmers is at stake.
Loans available
Last week, the Manitoba government increased its producer recovery program from $25 million to $45 million. Administered by the Manitoba Agricultural Credit Corporation, the program offers loans of up to $50,000 for individuals and $100,000 for partnerships, corporations and farming co-ops. Applications for the loans are available from MACC’s field offices.
Manitoba Agriculture also extended the crop insurance spring seeding deadline for full coverage by five days. The extension applies to most crops with the exception of those that were seeded in the fall.
The change is meant to help cash-strapped farmers and those struggling with saturated fields this spring.
Farmers who cannot work or spray may have the added frustration of seeing their land become overgrown with weeds.
Manitoba Agriculture and Keystone Agricultural Producers, a general farm lobby organization, were among those lobbying this spring for an extension of the emergency registration for the aerial application of Roundup herbicide.
But the Pest Management Regulatory Agency decided last week that an extension would not be granted, said spokesperson Antony Simpson. The benefits would have been modest, he said, in comparison to the environmental consequences.
The agency estimated that as much as 2.5 million acres of farmland might have been sprayed with Roundup by plane had the extension been granted. The agency had to consider the effects on shelterbelts, wildlife habitat and established forage crops, Simpson said.
