THE PAS, Man. – There may be fewer days to grow a crop, but the suns shines for longer during each of them.
Farmers north of the 53rd parallel in Manitoba seem to be able to find the bright side to their splendid isolation.
Two years ago, when fusarium and ergot ran amok in the southern part of the province, farmers here had the best red spring wheat in the province.
And this year, when cattle producers in the south are struggling through drought to stockpile enough bales for the winter, it’s haying as usual for farmers at The Pas.
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“The soil is good, there’s always lots of grass, and we’ve never been short of hay yet, even in poor years,” said Rod Berezowecki, who runs a cow-calf operation of 200 Simmentals with his family.
Farming at this latitude might not seem like a big deal to producers at Meadow Lake, Sask. or Peace River, Alta. But in Manitoba, where farming is heavily concentrated south of the TransCanada Highway, The Pas is an anomaly.
“There’s just trees, trees, trees,” explains Brenda Berezowecki, describing the view from Highway 10. “You have to drive a little west and then you can see there’s more open country.”
Mixed farming
Like the Berezoweckis, most of the hundred or so farm families in the area have a mix of cattle, forages and grain.
Farmers start seeding early in June, and harvest into October. They may still be clearing willows off the odd acre or two, but they never have to pick rocks.
In fact, they have to haul stones from outside the valley to build a Texas gate.
The land seems flatter than the Red River Valley. Top soil is more than 55 metres deep, deposited on the river delta over the eons. Coyotes howl every night, and sometimes timber wolves are a problem.
Farmer Fred Madrigga figures he’s been down every road in Saskatchewan looking at bulls; Berezowecki has gone as far as the British Columbia border.
Marnie McCracken, the provincial agriculture representative for the area, said the extra travelling yields good ideas and innovations, keeping farmers current.
Many farmers have found success with satellite auctions, which mean less trucking and shrinkage. Others drive to auction barns in Minitonas and Brandon in Manitoba and Prince Albert or Kelvington in Saskatchewan.
When machinery breaks down, it’s a minimum 12-hour wait for a part from the south. There are no dealers in town.
“You get to know the farm machinery dealers who have damn good parts people,” said Armand LeSann, who hoards parts manuals so he can order by number as much as possible.
“That’s something that people up here get used to. You just stock a bit more stuff for yourself, or you go on to the next job and wait for your part,” said Berezowecki.
His son Jarrett, 12, notes the importance of duct tape on the farm.
Farmers had even adapted to driving sick livestock to Swan River, Man. until they got a full-time veterinarian 10 years ago.
The staff at the lone grain elevator, owned by Manitoba Pool, arrange semi-loads of seed from the Swan River Valley each spring, and sold more than $2 million in fertilizer and chemical last year.
Since the demise of the Crow rail subsidy, farmers have been doing more trucking. A lot of canola from the valley goes by B-train to the crushing plant at Nipawin, Sask.
Farmers are aging around The Pas, as they are in other parts of the Prairies.
At 40, it worries Berezowecki that he’s among the younger ones. But he thinks there is opportunity for new farmers because of relatively available land at reasonable prices.
“I think they have to come from somewhere else,” he said, adding what he considers the ultimate pitch for the area.
“You can come here and farm all you want, and when you’re tired of farming, you can go just a few miles north and catch all the fish you want.”
