Flooding creates seeding delays across northeast region

“We haven’t seen water like this. My grandfather’s 92 years old, and he’s never seen this before.”

As per this week’s crop report from the Ministry of Agriculture, seeding is three per cent complete across the northeast region. This is up two per cent from last week and remains behind the five-year regional average of 46 per cent.

Lavoie explained the snow in April, and the fast melt were big contributors, but added they also received about seven inches of rain last August.

“So all of our sloughs, runs, and dugouts were full. There was no place for this extra water to go so when she let go, it all had to run and couldn’t pool anywhere and collect and that’s where we started seeing washouts of roads and yards,” he said.

“We were actually stranded on our farm. Every access was out, and we were using a tractor. At the end, we finally just used a small aluminum boat to travel about three quarters of a mile to a pickup truck so we could get off the farm.”

In terms of getting any help from the province or through crop insurance, Lavoie confirmed he has looked into crop insurance for the wet acres but added it’s not a fix all for the problem at hand. He also noted the RMs have been working hard, trying to get repairs done and keep roads open.

“We understand the stress the RMs are under. I mean, when you have 120 plus washouts, it doesn’t get fixed overnight.”

RM of Garden River Reeve Ryan Scragg told paNOW farmers in the area are facing wet fields, cold soil, and significantly reduced acres and there are still lots of washed-out and closed roads. According to Saskatchewan Rivers MLA Eric Schmalz, the RM is using Provincial Disaster Assistance Program (PDAP) funding to hire private contractors to assist “in the timely repair of that infrastructure to ensure that they can make it into those fields.”

When asked about estimated damage totals during a press conference with the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA) on Thursday, Saskatchewan’s Minister of Community Safety and Minister responsible for the SPSA, Michael Weger said, “Right now we’re still in the assessment stage on this and SPSA will be collecting this information in collaboration with the Minister of Highways and Water Security Agency…it’s a work in progress right now.”

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nigel.maxwell@pattisonmedia.com

On X: @nigelmaxwell

by Nigel Maxwell

Flooding creates seeding delays across northeast region

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