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Vol. 15, No. 33, Wednesday, July 15, 2020 www.LamontLeader.com
Farmers roundtable: clean drainage ditches, then do road repair This is part one of a two part article on the concerns of farmers in the Lamont County Region. Part two will run in the July 22, Lamont Leader. BY JOHN MATHER If you bring a group of farmers together for a chat, pretty soon you have the pulse of Lamont County. And that’s exactly what happened when Augustine Lamash of the Andrew area; Cliff Moroziuk, of the Mundare area; Mark Sobkow, from the St. Michael area; Zoltan Yaremie, from the Andrew area; Ryan Warawa, of the Mundare area; and Bob Starko from Star; gathered for coffee at the Warawa farm in eastern Lamont County, July 11. Flooding, bad drainage and poor roads are at the top of their list of complaints and they do feel the County could do more, but also acknowledge money is tight. One farmer, who has been keeping accurate records, has over 13 inches of water so far this year; while another claims to have 15 inches just east of Star. Another said he had been spraying water off his land using a six inch water cannon non stop 24/7 for three weeks. “It’s a great financial strain,” said Moroziuk. “It’s unbelievable how much this is going to cost us,” “And this is my fifth year, I’m not going to be able to take much more of this.” Some may not be here next year to talk about it, added Yaremie. He said if you use a guy who makes $100,000 a year. You can take 30 per cent right of the top for him right now. “In a lot of cases you could easily be looking at a 50 per cent loss.” “What the County has to do is go back to the water runs like they had in the 50s and 60s,” said Warawa. “If we lived in town and the sewer systems were failing, they would quickly fix the sewer systems. “This is basically our sewer system for the fields and for 30 years they have been neglected. Roots, branches and other factors have caused them to get
Except for the vegetation on each side, it would be hard to tell there’s a road under this lake near Township Road 544 and Range Road 170, near Andrew. The flooding in Lamont County from the spring rains is wreaking havoc on both farmers who can’t seed saturated fields, and roads that can’t support the weight of equipment trying to get to the fields. blocked and they’ve changed course. see the damage. “There are 275,000 seedable acres in And now we’re in the five year wet cycle of weather. The County needs to Lamont, I was told by somebody at get back to basics and work on the Richardson Grain in Lamont,” echoes Warawa. “And they figure 35 per cent waterways and roads.” How does the flooding affect farmers is unseeded, flooded or under water. “ Others felt that was a conservative with animals? “We have 55 acres of pasture near number. Let’s be conservative at $150 acre inputs, suggests Andrew and maybe 20 is exposed.,” an Yaremie said. “Cattle can’t cross creeks. Moroziuk, and it brings you up to $7.5 They have hoof rot we’re constantly million in out of pocket expenses. Sobkow states the first plan of action treating. The pens are a disaster. “We have feed for the cattle but I must get rid of the water. “First before you improve the roads, don’t know if we can get it off the field,” he added. “I retail silage also you have to get rid of the water and and the guys don’t know what they’re that’s not happening.” “You have to open the irrigation going to do yet. The grass is growing but if you can’t get into the fields for areas and ditches.’ Warawa states the County area is two weeks, it’s going to be garbage.” You drive from Lamont to the Skaro like a basin and the water has no place Shrine, pointed out Starko, and you to go right now. “The registered drainage areas don’t even have to get up in the air to
Bob Starko, Zoltan Yaremie, Augustine Lamash, Mark Sobkow, and Clint Moroziuk, from across Lamont County, gathered to help pull some tractors out of a field where they had become stuck July 11. The gathering took place at Ryan Warawa’s farm, in eastern Lamont County where the tractors and a seeder were stuck in his field.
haven’t been maintained and when they back up the fields downstream all get flooded.” It’s obvious the money wasn’t allocated for the past 20 to 30 years, the group adds, and now it's come home to roost. “If they’d done regular maintenance maybe we wouldn’t have this problem,” added Lamash. “But this is hindsight. It didn’t happen, but something has to be done now.” “We’re in survival mode right now … we just want to reduce the damage,” stated Sobkow. Referring to the Whitford Falls photo in last week’s Lamont Leader, the farmers laugh at it, but in a sad way. “This Whitford Falls that everyone jokes about … it’s no joke,” scoffs Sobkow. “They need to clean that out. But instead of removing the culvert, they’ll spend the big money to fix the road. Just replace the culvert. If you have problems there with the culvert, then it’s backing up how many farms downstream?” “Where’s our regular road maintenance?” asks Lamash. “This year I had to drive through Andrew with equipment because the other roads are blocked or closed.” “If the roads are flooded how do we get to our fields. Some of these issues have been going on for two or three years.” The immediate fix is you have to get rid of the water is the collective solution for all the group. “If there’s no waterway then it has to be pumped out,” said Moroziuk. “The County has a drainage study, but we can’t wait for that . We need back hoes getting into the known drainage ditches to clean them out. If it's a registered drainage, let’s maintain it so it can do the job it’s supposed to.” “We’ve been 10 years trying to get this drainage ditch cleaned out,” said Warawa. “But County people can’t find the records, but everybody knows they exist. If they maintained the ditch then the water could run away.” Part 2 in next week’s Leader