One of Western Canada’s largest landowners is allowing farmers to use
its property for haying and grazing this year.
Ducks Unlimited Canada is making at least 40 percent of its conserved
lands in Saskatchewan and Alberta available to drought-stricken
livestock producers from those provinces.
“The drought will limit duck production this year, just as it’s
limiting crop and forage production for Saskatchewan’s agricultural
landowners,” said Gord Edwards, DU’s director of regional operations
for the prairie region.
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“With our wetlands drying up, many Ducks Unlimited Canada lands will
have limited benefit to waterfowl and other wildlife.”
The group said Manitoba has enough water to support waterfowl and
agriculture.
Approximately 40,000 acres will be available to farmers in
Saskatchewan. An estimate wasn’t available for Alberta.
“We know what landowners are dealing with in terms of drought,” said
Keith LePoudre, manager of DU’s field operations in Saskatoon.
“It’s the driest we’ve ever seen it in some areas. Many of our
drought-stricken areas will provide good forage reserves for our
neighbours on the landscape.”
Reaction from some of those neighbors has been lukewarm. Agricultural
Producers Association of Saskatchewan vice-president Evans Thordarson
called DU’s announcement a public relations move to improve its
tarnished relationship with farmers.
He was referring to the conservation cover incentive program that DU is
pitching to the federal government. It would take 5.2 million acres of
riparian and cultivated marginal lands in Western Canada off of
farmers’ hands for conservation purposes.
Participating farmers would be paid an estimated $13 per acre for land
taken out of production.
“APAS sort of beat up on Ducks Unlimited over their attitude towards
removing land from agriculture,” Thordarson said.
“This (drought response program) is a response to that.”
He said APAS and individual farmers don’t like the idea of the
non-profit agency pushing to take agricultural land out of production.
A DU official said most of the conservation land will be offered to
farmers on a tendered basis, except for leased lands, which will be
first offered to the landowners.
Money paid by farmers to use the land will be invested in forage- and
livestock-related projects in Saskatchewan and Alberta.
Ducks Unlimited is using the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation
Administration’s winter precipitation map to identify drought stricken
areas.
It is targeting areas on the map labeled “record dry” or “extremely
low,” which encompasses a large portion of central Alberta and
Saskatchewan and southwestern Alberta. Co-ordinators say that doesn’t
rule out other regions of either province.
More information about the program will be available in the next week
or two. Producers are encouraged to watch their community newspapers or
to contact their local Ducks Unlimited office for details.
