REGINA (Staff) – Some Kamsack area farmers are reseeding after a flash flood washed away their crops last week.
Extension agrologist Wally Vanin said about 7.5 centimetres of rain fell within a couple of hours in a 16 by 24 kilometre area south of Kamsack. Hail also fell, but Vanin said the crops were not advanced enough to be destroyed.
“Reseeding is being done because of soil erosion … particularly canola,” Vanin said.
Other farmers are doing nothing and hoping for the best.
“On some of these fields 80 percent of the field is still OK so the farmers are choosing to leave the field alone,” Vanin said.
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He described the fields as “just like you’d see in the movies of a flash flood in Australia or somewhere where the water comes rushing in.”
The farmland affected is broken up by creeks and water runs, he said. The water filled up the valleys and then submerged the crops. Trees were washed up on to the fields and the ground was white with hail. Fields seeded deeper than others fared better.
“It’s going to be quite difficult for spraying and harvest operations,” Vanin said, because of the washouts acting as barriers.
