Western flood review study released » Page 7
Canadian miller honoured internationally Outstanding contributions » Page 10
July 11, 2013
SERVING MANITOBA FARMERS SINCE 1925 | Vol. 71, No. 28
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Southwest ranchers grapple with flooding
Noxious weed control to be strengthened in Manitoba It’s part of the Manitoba government’s strategy to reduce pesticide exposure
Fast flowing water from recent rainstorms in the Reston area has caused widespread damage to downstream roads, haylands and crops
By Allan Dawson co-operator staff
K
eystone Agricultural Producers’ president Doug Chorney is anxious to see details on how the Manitoba government will better protect farmland from noxious weeds as part of its ban on cosmetic pesticides. “I am encouraged by that, but we want to make sure that is the case,” Chorney said July 3 in an interview. “It’s important that it’s not forgotten. We’re not just talking about dandelions in Assiniboine Park.” Chorney was responding to the government’s June 28 announcement that it will introduce legislation in the fall banning “synthetic chemical lawn pesticides,” with the exceptions of “agricultural lands and gardens, golf courses, sod farms, and addressing high-risk
Cattle converge near the swollen Maple Lakes drain after heavy rains two weeks ago around Reston unleashed “flash flooding.” Photo: Daniel Winters
By Daniel Winters co-operator staff / near Pipestone
W
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See WEED CONTROL on page 6 »
ith five gyres the colour of black tea swirling into culverts in the background, Garth Elliott stood on a washed-out road and looks out over what appears to be an inland sea. It’s actually Stoney Creek, which in most years is a tiny rivulet fed by sloughs. “Some years, this creek doesn’t even run,” said Elliott. But this spring, swollen by well over a dozen inches of rain that created havoc in the town of Reston two weeks ago, it’s a gushing torrent. He should be putting up hay this time of year. But right now Elliott is wondering how he’ll move the 100 cow-calf pairs that can barely be seen grazing on a small patch of dry land off in the distance. With many roads in the RMs of Albert and Cameron closed, trailering them is going to be tough, and he’s not even sure how he’ll get to them on his ATV. His 60 heifers are on reasonably dry pasture, but he was forced to rent nearby pastures for another group of 120 cowcalf pairs that had to be herded overland through a foot of water after they were stranded near a poplar bluff, the only
dry place left in six quarters of marshy hayland. That pasture is getting beaten down, and he’ll have to move them somewhere else shortly. Elliott figures the massive rainstorms west of Reston, about 15 miles upstream, dumped as much as 15 inches of rain. As the water rose on Stoney Creek, just south of his family’s century homestead, they scrambled to protect their homes by hastily erecting a barrier of round bales and plastic. The dike held against water about a foot deep, but altogether he’s lost about 600 acres of cropland, both canola and silage corn to the flood. “We’re hoping some of these flats might dry up so we can seed greenfeed by the
“Grain farmers hate it when guys like me say this, but there’s no sloughs left and drainage everywhere, so this is what you get.” Gavin Mackenzie
end of July, but that’s really pushing it for the time left in the growing season,” said Elliott. Gavin Mackenzie, a young farmer and oilfield worker who also lives along Stoney Creek, said that the deluge is the worst to hit the area in more than 100 years. “It’s a hell of a mess,” said Mackenzie, who recently took aerial photos of the devastation. “The 1976 flood doesn’t even compare.” His 130 cow-calf pairs are fine for now on pastures that are half water, half grass. He’s started haying about a week later than he normally does, mainly because his position on local RM council kept him busy with flood-relief work. Mackenzie believes that climate change is changing weather pattern and causing bigger and more intense rainstorms, and the shift from ranching in the area to grain farming is leading to reckless drainage upstream, especially just over the border in Saskatchewan where there are effectively “no rules.” “Grain farmers hate it when guys like me say this, but there’s no sloughs left and drainage everywhere, so this is what you get,” said Mackenzie. See FLOODING on page 6 »
GONE: Rural voice loses its government advocate » PAGE 3