Leafy spurge | Federal pastures will require control initiatives
DAVIDSON, Sask. — Producers using a federal community pasture in Saskatchewan say they aren’t keen to take over land covered in noxious weeds.
Neil Palmer, chair of the Willner-Elbow pasture patrons’ committee, said 9,000 of the 23,000 acres in the Elbow pasture are covered with leafy spurge.
That’s up from 3,000 acres a dozen years ago and despite about 20 years of grazing sheep in the pasture to try to control the weed.
Under Ottawa’s divestiture plan, users are supposed to assume control of the pasture after the 2015 grazing season.
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Palmer said patrons can’t also assume the cost of controlling an inherited liability.
“This is not the patrons’ responsibility,” he said.
The federal government has already backed away from some of its control efforts, including plans last year to cut funding to the sheep control program. Palmer responded by putting pressure on Ottawa to pay up.
“Otherwise, by 2016 there would have been three full years of no control,” he said.
The former Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration estimated that pasture capacity drops by 100 cow-calf pairs for every year without control, he added.
“We have 1,200 head capacity and within 10 to 12 years that would be gone.”
The federal government came up with funding and issued a tender for sheep in May.
Tenders for the 2014 and 2015 control programs have already been issued and close Feb. 27, according to Public Works Canada.
The proposal request identifies leafy spurge as the main problem, with control of wild rose and western snowberry also required.
It also asks for a minimum of 1,000 ewes and a maximum of 2,500. The successful applicant will supply one experienced herder to live on site in a camping facility and one or two back-ups, trained dogs to move and control the sheep and guardian dogs for predator control. Rams may be allowed subject to the approval of Agriculture Canada.
The sheep are to be in the pasture by mid-May and out by the end of September.
The contract value is not to exceed $38,000 for each season.
Palmer said the Saskatchewan Sheep Development Board had previously operated the program, but the board has said it would require more money to bring in more sheep for better control.
He said 2,000 sheep are the minimum to obtain any control. At one time, more than 4,000 head were grazed.
“There is a lot of cost involved,” he said, which is why patrons want the liability issue addressed before they take over.
Palmer said control is essential because the weed is moving toward Douglas Provincial Park and Lake Diefenbaker.
Saskatchewan agriculture minister Lyle Stewart has said pasture users should not have to take over a pasture in that condition and pledged help, likely in the form of money for chemical control.
Palmer is concerned about that, noting it will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and kill more than just weeds. Elbow pasture is home to one of the established populations of western spiderwort, an endangered perennial plant.
Research shows repeated application of chemicals is required for years to control new growth.
