PUBLISHED BY MANITOBA BEEF PRODUCERS
| VOL.14 NO.4 JUNE 2012
LAKE MANITOBA PRODUCERS FACE PROLONGED FLOOD RECOVERY RON FRIESEN
Langruth – A bleached fence post stripped of its wire marks the location of Tom Teichroeb’s pasture. RON FRIESEN PHOTO
This is what Tom Teichroeb’s summer pasture looks like today after last year’s flood around Lake Manitoba.
2011 was a time of high drama as producers struggled to evacuate their livestock and families as rising lake waters swept inland. Reporters with cameras and tape recorders milled about as Teichroeb and his neighbours watched their fields, their yards and their livelihoods being swallowed by white-capped waves, whipped up by high winds.
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Teichroeb’s family herded their cattle along roads threatened by rising water, sometimes hauling newborn calves that couldn’t walk any more. Other producers swam cattle to safety,
munity hall as Teichroeb and others filed one by one to a microphone before hundreds of people to plead for government assistance. Today, a year later, the reporters have gone home,
ter the shoreline. Campgrounds have been turned into wasteland. Thousands of acres of grassland are grey stretches of silt punctuated with water and bulrushes. Cattle, evacuated
Today, a year later, the reporters have gone home, the flood has faded from the headlines and Lake Manitoba residents are left to pick up the pieces. at times wading chest-deep through icy water. The tension reached a climax in June during an emotionally charged public meeting at the local com-
the flood has faded from the headlines and Lake Manitoba residents are left to pick up the pieces. It’s a bleak task. Splintered cottages lit-
during the flood, are scattered on rented pastures throughout the province because there is nothing for them to come home to. The extent of damage
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It’s May 10 and the grass should be four to eight inches high and almost ready for grazing. In a normal year, Teichroeb would be turning his cattle out on to pasture in a week or two, getting equipment ready for haying and looking forward to a first cut. But this is not a normal year. Instead of green grass, a vast expanse of utter devastation stretches beyond the solitary fence post. Twelve months ago, overland flooding from nearby Lake Manitoba swamped Teichroeb’s pastureland. Now, heavy black muck covers a once-lush hay field. Pools of standing water still remain in the background. There will be little grass or hay from this pasture in 2012 or on any of the other 24 quarter sections Teichroeb either owns or leases as Crown land. It will take years for the land to return to its natural state – if it ever does. Meanwhile, Teichroeb’s 300 cow-calf pairs and 150 yearlings are currently on rented pastures 25 miles away near Plumas. He has no idea when they’ll be able to come home. “We’ll have to determine in the summertime what’s realistic and whether or not we can bring them back here,” he says. The middle of May