The river systems and creeks are receding, uncovering eroded banks, saturated fields and damaged roads in northeastern Saskatchewan.
Wesley Black, deputy reeve for the Rural Municipality of Porcupine, said three families have not yet returned to their flood-damaged homes in the area.
Twenty-five culverts and 18 bridges were washed out, forcing the RM to hire an additional contractor to help make the roads passable for school buses and other traffic this week.
“This area is really struggling right now,” he said.
He expects 40 percent of the fields in the district will not be seeded this spring. Many fields have deep ruts from machinery used during a wet harvest last fall when the area received up to 425 mm of rain.
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The 1.5 metres of snow that fell this winter melted quickly, flooding fields and farmyards.
“This never happens in this area,” Black said, citing the skiff of snow that fell again this weekend.
He wants the province to declare the farmland a disaster area to allow producers to apply for disaster assistance funds.
The rural municipality, which declared a state of emergency this spring, can access the funds to help repair damaged infrastructure. He said the same support is not available to the farming community.
“Forty percent of the acres in this RM won’t get seeded, that’s our disaster,” he said. “We need something that will cover our cost of production on those acres that will not get seeded.”
Crop insurance programs can provide up to $50 an acre, but Black said producers need that topped up to cover their fixed costs.
That was the message he took to a meeting in Ottawa in April with federal agriculture minister Chuck Strahl.
Black said farmers need the commitment of money now to help them plan their growing year and meet with banks to extend credit or renegotiate loans.
Farmer Sharon Stegemann, who lives north of Somme, said her farm has to use another tractor and cultivator to smooth out deep ruts. Flooded fields and roads have prevented her family from fully assessing the extent of damage on the farm.
She cited the case of one local farmer whose oat crop was left out last fall and floated away with the water this spring.
Stegemann said the family, which normally begins seeding in the first week of May, does not expect to begin before mid-May at the earliest.
Harvesting in wet conditions created the deep ruts that will take weeks to dry out, she said.
“When it costs a half million dollars to put the crop in and you’ve got all your bills, you have to get your crop off,” she said.
The Stegemanns then spent $40,000 to dry their crops.
Stegemann, along with the Porcupine and District Disaster Area Farmers, is seeking funds for acres that will not be seeded due to excessive moisture.
Ed Tanner, crop development specialist at Tisdale, said moisture levels fluctuate from location to location.
“There are areas quite badly flooded the farther east you go,” he said.
Tanner said spring work is only marginally behind at Melfort, although two or more weeks behind at Porcupine Plain, Hudson Bay and Carrot River.
“It’s a short season up there, so they can’t wait,” he said, noting many farmers will be forced to plant barley and oats.
Warm winds experienced last week will help dry things out, he said.
“A week of this will make quite a difference,” he said. “A week of wet weather is not what we’re looking for.”
In contrast to the wet north, southern Saskatchewan is much drier, particularly in the southwest where some seeding has begun.
Saskatchewan Agriculture’s crop report indicates that about one percent of last year’s harvest remained out this past winter, with one third of that expected to be harvested this spring.
Flooding and wildlife damage have rendered the remainder unsuitable for harvest.
In Alberta, areas of the Peace region are also reporting dry conditions, while southern Alberta is wet.
Doug McRae of McRae Holdings in Pincher Creek said seeding of barley is under way in areas near Calgary, Lethbridge and Pincher Creek.
That’s about two weeks behind schedule for the area, he said.
McRae noted Pincher Creek received an abundance of fall rain but little winter snow. Recent winds have helped dry out the surface but many producers are still dealing with wet fields.
One area farm had six tractors going; five pulling seeders and the sixth pulling the others out, he said.
“It looks like a good spring. There’s good moisture and the soil is saturated,” he said.
