VOGAR, Man. – Art Jonasson was bending down for a closer inspection of his hay field when a jumping object caught his eye. A thumb-sized frog lept up and away, trying to escape Jonasson’s reach.
Although it’s not unusual to see frogs in the marshes that skirt the east shoreline of Lake Manitoba, it is strange to have them hopping across a typically dry ridge on Jonasson’s alfalfa field. This year, however, has been anything but typical on Jonasson’s farm, located near Lake Manitoba Narrows 200 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg.
Read Also
Agriculture ministers agree to AgriStability changes
federal government proposed several months ago to increase the compensation rate from 80 to 90 per cent and double the maximum payment from $3 million to $6 million
“The ground is absolutely saturated,” Jonasson said while jamming his heel into the wet earth. He then pointed to a still standing piece of his hay crop, with the alfalfa turning brown and beginning to rot.
“The alfalfa is just drowned out,” said Jonasson, who had rolled up only 250 bales as of Aug. 8.
“That’s dead grass. That’s not going to come back.”
In a normal year at this time, he and his wife, Jackie, would have already produced 3,000 of their 3,500 round bales. However, an unusually wet June and July have made it extremely difficult to get on the land.
“We’ve never had a flood like this before,” said Jonasson, who has raised cattle on the east side of Lake Manitoba for 40 years.
He is one of many cattle producers in Manitoba’s northern Interlake who are struggling to harvest hay from soaked fields.
According to Environment Canada data from Fisher Branch, Man., 163 millimetres of rain fell on the northern Interlake in July. Normal rainfall for the month is 63 mm.
“We got two days of sunshine, then an inch of rain,” said Jonasson, commenting on the weather pattern in July.
It has rained so much around Lake Manitoba this summer that the lake’s water level rose last month.
“It only rose about two-tenths of a foot, but that’s highly unusual. By July the lakes are usually falling,” said Alf Warkentin, flood forecaster with the provincial government.
Warkentin hasn’t looked up when this last happened, but he guessed that it’s been more than 30 years since the lake rose in the summer.
While haying is more than a month late on Jonasson’s farm, producers farther north are worse off, said Ray Bittner, a Manitoba Agriculture farm production adviser based in Ashern.
“The Gypsumville area is probably the most seriously affected …. They got a six inch rain in one shot” in early July, Bittner said.
“Then they were hit by another three inch rain (later in the month) and that just about finished everything off.”
The wild hay crop has been the hardest hit, Bittner said, which is a crucial crop for cattle producers around Gypsumville.
“There are a lot of areas where there’s a bush, an open area and a bush. And those open areas are floating right now,” said Bittner, who toured the northern Interlake last week to assess the damage.
“They likely won’t be able to harvest it at any point.”
Jonasson’s main alfalfa field doesn’t smell like a hay crop. The field emits a dank odour, similar to the air quality in a fen.
Nonetheless, he remains hopeful that if the weather co-operates he will be able to harvest most of his hay crop, which consists of 400 acres of alfalfa and the rest in wild hay.
Jonasson is most concerned about quality.
“The cattle aren’t going to eat some of that stuff,” he said, estimating the protein content of his alfalfa is 10 percent or less.
He is wrapping the wet bales he’s already rolled to prevent rot and will likely do the same with the rest of his harvest.
Even with a warm August, Jonasson concedes the damage is done and he may have to sell cattle because he probably won’t have enough quality feed for his entire herd.
The self described “stubborn Icelander” said the wet summer is merely a setback for his operation.
“We’re going to survive this and keep on going.”
