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SERVING MANITOBA FARMERS SINCE 1925 | Vol. 74, No. 26 | $1.75
May 26, 2016
manitobacooperator.ca
Rain needed for germination But don’t seed deep to find it By Allan Dawson and Shannon VanRaes Co-operator staff
D
espite dark clouds and much thunder, the May long weekend weather failed to deliver the dust-settling, crop kick-starting rain many farmers are anxiously awaiting. “What rain there was mostly fell in the southeast of the province,” said Lionel Kaskiw, a Souris-based farm production adviser for the Manitoba Department of Agriculture. While some producers did experience isolated rain and hail events, most producers only saw a meagre one to 10 millimetres of precipitation, he said. “So it’s some but it’s not really enough to make a big difference that’s for sure,” he added, noting most areas of the province need between half an inch and an inch of rain to germinate dry seeds. “Crop is still coming up in areas and so it does depend a little bit as to where you are in the southwest as to how severe the situation is,” Kaskiw said. “But south of the No. 2 Highway, there is a pretty good demand or need for rain fairly shortly just to get the crop germinated.” The adviser said that in areas that were seeded early with ce-
Once highly productive pastures along the Upper Assiniboine River near the Shellmouth Dam are now saturated with water after years of repeat flooding. Photo: Jennifer Paige
Frustrations rising along the river’s edge Producers operating in close proximity to the Assiniboine River from the Shellmouth Dam to St. Lazare are struggling to stay afloat BY JENNIFER PAIGE Co-operator staff/Brandon
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See RAIN on page 7 »
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t happens ever year, no matter how wet or dry conditions have been. Water lays in the pastures and fields along the Upper Assiniboine River downstream from the Shellmouth Dam. Cliff Trinder, who runs a cattle operation with 32 miles of river frontage near Russell, describes the situation as “a mess” and says it’s high time the province dealt with the situation instead of perpetually kicking the can down the road. “We need to sit down and come up with some solutions and agreements about what we are going to do up here,” Trinder said recently. Without action, landowners like him will be left to pick up the fre-
quent and hefty tab for the actions of others, he said. “I am hugely impacted,” Trinder said. “A small flood will cost me half a million dollars in reconstruction and direct losses, and after so many years of constant flooding my pastures look like wasteland. The ground is so saturated that you can’t even drive a quad on it.” An estimated 50,000 acres along the banks of the Assiniboine, from the Shellmouth Dam to St. Lazare, are said to be at risk of flooding every spring, and over the past decade it has reached crisis proportions, says Stan Chochrane, chairman of the Assiniboine Valley Producers and a grain and cattle farmer who operates just outside the Sioux Valley Dakota Nation near Griswold. “Around 2006-07, we started to have floods nearly every year. It has been a financial hardship, plus it has taken a
lot of effort to try and manage a farm when a portion of your land is getting flooded all the time,” Cochrane said.
The dam At the heart of the issue is the Shellmouth Dam, holding back the Lake of the Prairies. As far back as the 1920s the province began to look at flood mitigation strategies, and following a study conducted in 1950, it was concluded that the creation of a reservoir at Lake of the Prairies, along with the Portage Diversion, would be the most feasible solution. Construction of the Shellmouth Dam was completed in 1972 and has since been operated by Manitoba Infrastructure (MIT) as an on-stream reservoir. “We operate the facility in consulSee SHELLMOUTH DAM on page 6 »
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