The Manitoba government gave some Red River Valley farmers the Labour Day weekend off.
But few of the farmers were thankful. The province’s Aug. 30 temporary ban on stubble burning left many post-harvest farmers with a problem. They need to burn the thick stubble on their fields.
“We think the province was premature,” said Ray Franzmann, a Fannystelle, Man., farmer whose area has thick, wet soils that often produce crops with lots of straw.
“They shouldn’t have stopped the people who had licences and were following the rules.”
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Stubble burning was suspended after a three-car collision Aug. 28 on the Trans-Canada Highway near Elie, Man., injured more than six people.
The accident, which is still under investigation, occurred in the middle of the afternoon after smoke from a stubble fire obscured highway visibility and cars slammed into each other.
Since then, Winnipeggers have filled radio phone-in shows with demands for stubble burning to be banned or severely curtailed.
The call to curtail burning stubble concerns David Rolfe, president of Keystone Agricultural Producers, who thinks the problem has a different source.
“The key is enforcement,” said Rolfe, pointing out that the fire near Elie was illegal, so regulations would not have affected it.
“The regulations have been in place since 1993 and we worked closely with the government then to make sure we had regulations that work.”
On the day of the automobile crash, the province had banned all fires in the area because the wind was too strong. But this year, many unlicensed fires have been seen on days like that, or at night, when fires are also banned.
“There have been quite a few violations of the regulations,” said Rolfe.
Instead of coming up with new rules, the government should catch lawbreakers before problems develop, he said.
“I can understand the pressure from the public for wanting tighter restraints on burning, but the regulations are already there,” said Rolfe.
“It’s just the case that some people aren’t playing by the rules.”
Franzmann, who advises the government on the stubble issue, said burning is a necessary evil in the Red River Valley.
“Many of us don’t like to do it, but many of us have to do it,” he said.
“If it was dry every August and September, it would chop up pretty nicely and we could work with it, but it’s not always that way.”
One of the key problems in the valley is the fusarium epidemic, which is best controlled by burning.
“Working the diseased straw and chaff back into the land perpetuates fusarium,” said Franzmann.
