Since last fall, much of eastern Saskatchewan has received unusually high amounts of rainfall and snow. At Porcupine Plain, Sask., members of the Porcupine Disaster Group held a farm rally May 31 to raise awareness of the desperate situation. Producers there expect to leave half of their farmland unseeded this year. They say the Saskatchewan crop insurance program and a federal emergency farm assistance package worth $15 per unseeded acre will not save them from financial ruin.
PORCUPINE PLAIN, Sask. – Elgin and Karla Stegemann have reached the breaking point.
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For 15 years, the couple has made a living on their family farm near Porcupine Plain in northeastern Saskatchewan.
But this year, they are heading in a new direction. In less than a month’s time, they will load up their belongings and head for greener pastures along with their two children, Kallie, 2, and Kamryn, four months.
In Edson, Alta., 1,000 kilometres away, there is plenty of work and a guaranteed income awaits.
Elgin has lined up a job in the oil patch where he will work as an independent contractor, logging trees for oil lease access roads.
At Porcupine Plain, where Elgin and Karla were both raised, there are friends and family, but no future. Instead there is a growing farm debt and thousands of acres of waterlogged farmland.
“I’m broke,” said Elgin, when asked about his decision to leave the family farm. “I can’t afford to farm any more and I’ve got a wife and two kids to worry about.
“It looks very good in Edson,” he added. “There is a possibility there to clear $500,000 a year. But it’s still hard to leave. My heart’s in the farm … but we just have no choice. There’s nothing left here for us.”
Farm families leaving Saskatchewan is nothing new, but on the fringe of farming country in the province’s northeast, the departures are becoming more common.
Producing profitable crops has always been a challenge in the Porcupine Plain area.
A few years ago, farmers in the region lost their only railway line and were left without a local grain buyer.
For the Stegemann family, which has farmed northeast of Porcupine Plain since 1929, the nearest delivery point for oilseeds and non-feed grains is more than 80 kilometres away – a bone-jarring trip over deteriorating roads that are battered by heavy trucks.
Low commodity prices and reduced government support programs have also taken a toll on the region.
But for the Stegemanns, it was Mother Nature that dealt the final blow.
After two years of drought in 2002 and 2003, farmers in the area were hit by hail and frost in 2004.
Then, in the fall of 2005, record rainfall devastated crops, delayed harvest and left farmers in the region holding huge stocks of low-value feed grains.
Wesley Black, a third-generation producer who farms north of Somme, Sask., collected 500 millimetres in his rain gauge in six weeks last year between mid-August and late September.
Somehow, Black harvested his entire crop last fall, as did most farmers in the area.
But the grain he took off was weathered and devalued. And, to add insult, last year’s crop cost nearly twice as much as normal to harvest because of weather-related delays, increased fuel consumption and unexpected expenditures on items such as grain carts, straight cut headers and duals for their combines.
Winter followed, delivering 1.8 metres of snow, and the massive spring runoff washed away roads, eroded fields and delayed seeding by several weeks this spring.
Then came the cincher – a 100 mm soaker that hit the area in late May.
For all but a few, that event signalled the end of the 2006 spring seeding season.
“We’re right around 30 percent complete in the area and we’re running out of days,” said Black, who had 800 of his 2,500 acres seeded before the latest downpour.
“The rain last year and the runoff this spring has devastated our community,” said Black.
“It washed out roads. It took out bridges …. It’s just getting to be too much.
“The attitude in the community is one of complete frustration. There’s a feeling of alienation, that the government doesn’t care … and now we’re starting to see young families move away, and a small community can’t have that happen.
“These people are the future of our community and they’re just picking up and walking away. There’s nothing here for them. They can’t make it.”
With 15 years of his life invested in the farm, Black is not ready to throw in the towel, but he’s close.
He and his wife Deon already have off-farm jobs and, according to Black, they are one crop failure away from letting all their rented land go.
If the farming situation gets any worse, Black will find full-time work away from the farm and try to grow a downsized crop on days off and weekends.
As for their children – daughters Dana and Kristy and son Sean – a future in farming is unlikely.
“I’m definitely not encouraging them to get into farming,” Black said.
“There’s no reason. By the time they’re old enough to farm, I don’t think it will be a realistic option.”
For Tyler and Carrie Nycz, another farm couple from the area, there is no reason to delay the inevitable.
This summer, they will cut their losses and move to Edson with the Stegemanns.
When he got into farming in 1994, Tyler thought there was hope.
He took over a family farm that was completely paid for, he negotiated some good deals on rented land and he supplemented his income with off-farm work. He even diversified by planting and marketing niche crops and constructing a commercial seed cleaning plant on the farm.
But the farming landscape has changed since 1994 and so has Nycz’s outlook.
Last year was an expensive harvest and the payback was meager. This spring, he borrowed $60,000 against the only quarter of land in his name. It was the only way he could put in a crop.
“Mom has helped me all she can,” said Nycz. “I can’t ask her for any more.”
When Nycz and his wife move to Alberta this summer, they will take their three sons, aged 4,7 and 8, and use what capital they have left to make a new start.
“Right now I’ve still got enough equity in the farm that I can help get us started in Edson … borrow enough money to buy some bush equipment and try and get back to where we were 10 years ago.
“If I can make enough in Alberta to pay off what I owe on the farm … I’ll be a happy man.
“It’s a tough life in Edson. It’s tougher here, though.”
