Hope, fear and frustration are mingling in Manitoba farmers’ minds as they look out across their fields and wonder when they’ll get seeding.
Rain and a snowstorm that hit the province April 30 and May 1 has thrown seeding hopes back a few days, but weeks of dry weather through the spring have left most Manitoba farmland much better prepared than most would have guessed during the winter.
“Everyone’s optimistic,” Paul Gregory, a Fisher Branch honey producer and forage grower, said the day before the storm.
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“If we get two to three weeks dry after this, there’s a chance we start.”
Three dismal years of wet weather have kept most Interlake farmers out of the rising market in crops, but they’re ready to go this spring.
“It’s amazing,” said Gregory.
“The guys left now can make it because they’re efficient, or their wife teaches, or they have something like a turkey barn on the side.”
The dry spring has allowed much of last fall’s rainfall to soak into the soil, and hot weather will dry enough of the surface for the tractors to roll.
That’s the case across most of Manitoba, except in the bottom of river valley and drainage systems. Most Manitoba farmland is far better off now than farmers and agricultural forecasters had feared, after heavy snowfall exacerbated wet fall conditions. A long, dry spring has allowed much drying.
The cold temperatures are a bigger concern than excess water for most farmers. Seed beds are too cold for many crops to be safely sown and will need much heat to improve.
Thousands of acres are still under water along the main river courses. The temporary lake in the Red River Valley south of Winnipeg has drawn much attention, while the Assiniboine River has spilled in many areas as water from western Manitoba and eastern Saskatchewan moves through.
However, smaller systems have also created problems, such as the often-flooded Starbuck area west of Winnipeg. Farmers near the confluence of the La Salle river and a major drainage ditch have been swamped by backed-up water.
The area has seen fewer problems than many feared, but fields are under water and farmers fear that new water from the recent storm and spring and summer rains will drown crops.
“Around here, water will run backwards and go up over the fields,” said Marshall Piper, who farms west of Winnipeg.
“We can have 10,000 acres under water.”
However, Piper said he has been relieved by this spring’s dryness and by the work that local municipalities and the provincial government did last year to clear blockages in the drainage system.
“From the spring thaw, it was surprising how fast the water moved off the fields,” said Piper.
