The western producer january 19, 2017

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THURSDAY, JANUARY 19, 2017

VOL. 95 | NO. 3 | $4.25

Crop Week 2017 Find coverage of this year’s event | P. 3, 6, 8, 13, 14, 28 & 31.

Seeding by combine

Out of touch What can be done about rural internet service? | P. 56

A combine is used to seed winter cereals | P. 29

‘AMAZING’ SOIL LOSS A soil scientist estimates one North Dakota county has lost 30 centimetres of topsoil since 1900. It’s a cautionary tale for why soil conservation is so important. | SEE THE STORY ON PAGE 4 ABOVE: Marla Riekman watches as a clod of soil disintegrates in water. This soil is from a conventionally tilled field with annual crops. Soils from no-till fields or perennial crops hold together longer when immersed in water. | ROBERT ARNASON PHOTO

Sask. commodity groups denounce drainage bill BY SEAN PRATT SASKATOON NEWSROOM

All of Saskatchewan’s major crop organizations passed a resolution at CropSphere last week calling on the province to rescind or delay implementation of Bill 44. The bill supports the province’s new agricultural water management strategy and regulations that were implemented in October 2015. Franck Groeneweg, director of the Saskatchewan Farm Stewardship Association, was running between meeting rooms at CropSphere presenting the resolution.

He said the new policy requires farmers to get permits for all the drainage works on their property, with few exceptions. “All these little ditches and whatever are now illegal,” Groeneweg told flax growers. He estimates there is non-permitted drainage on 150,000 quarters of land throughout the province. Groeneweg is also concerned about the loss of the Water Appeal Board. “It gives a very heavy hand to the Water Security Agency,” he said. He said the Quill Lakes area is the

canary in the coal mine. Last year, the Water Security Agency ordered the closure of all unapproved drainage ditches in the two million acre basin and imposed a moratorium on any new projects. “When we see what Water Security could do to these farmers, I do not trust them to be in charge of the water policy for the rest of the province,” he told pulse growers. Jeff Pylatuik farms within the Quill Lakes basin, which has received more than 5,100 millimetres of rain in the last 10 years. He said the province’s new water

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management policy will take 20 to 25 percent of his acres out of production. “That would put me in the position of complete loss of profit,” said Pylatuik. “It would destroy my farm.” He said the Quill Lakes are overflowing due to the unprecedented rainfall. It has nothing to do with farm drainage. Pylatuik argued that the crops he grows consume more water per acre than is stored in the many sloughs scattered across his land. SEE DRAINAGE BILL, PAGE 5

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u|xhHEEJBy00001pzYv+:. JANUARY 19, 2017 Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: Box 2500, Stn. Main, Saskatoon, SK. S7K 2C4 The Western Producer is published in Saskatoon by Western Producer Publications, which is owned by GVIC Communications Corp. Publisher: Shaun Jessome Publications Mail Agreement No. 40069240

CROP WEEK


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