THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2011
VOL. 89 | NO. 16 | $3.75
WORRIES P5 POPULATION BOOM | WILDLIFE
SERVING WESTERN CANADIAN FARM FAMILIES SINCE 1923
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WWW.PRODUCER.COM
RISING WATERS | SEEDING
ELECTION | CAMPAIGN STRATEGY
Manitoba flooding delays seeding
Conservatives bank on gun registry to sway rural ridings BY BARRY WILSON OTTAWA BUREAU
PORTAGE LA PRAIRIE, Man. — Conservative party strategists hope the promise to kill the long gun registry will swing a handful of rural seats and help build a majority government. Southern Manitoba Conservative MP Candice Hoeppner is one of the key players in that strategy. Late last week, she left her safe Portage-Lisgar seat for a whirlwind tour of opposition-held seats where MPs had promised their voters they would oppose the long gun registry and then voted for its retention when a vote was held last year on Hoeppner’s private member’s bill. She is seen as an ideal salesperson: a non-gun-owning mother who represents a rural riding where gun ownership is part of doing business. Her message this election is trust.
Peak flow still to come | Corn, soybeans might not be planted BY ROBERT ARNASON BRANDON BUREAU
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SEE GUN REGISTRY, PAGE 2
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u|xhHEEJBy00001pzYv":' APRIL 21, 2011 Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: Box 2500, Saskatoon, SK. S7K 2C4
Manitoba’s Red River Valley is bracing for floods that are expected to peak April 25. Meanwhile, the Qu’Appelle River (above) flooded in Lumsden, Sask., soaking everything nearby. | WILLIAM DEKAY PHOTO Like Houle, Forrester isn’t sure how the flooding will affect his seeding plans. But, he may have to forgo his plans to plant corn and soybeans. Earlier this year, the Manitoba Pulse Growers Association and other o r gan i z ati on s w e re e xp e c t i n g 700,000 acres of soybeans across the province, which would set a new record for Manitoba. But the soybean acreage may drop if farmers in the Red River Valley choose a crop that matures more
rapidly, Forrester said. But Ingrid Kristjanson, Manitoba Agriculture farm production adviser in Morris, said producers might stick with their soybean intentions. “There will still be soybeans that go in…. But people that were growing some of the longer season soybeans, they will be putting in (a different variety) with the shortest number of days to maturity.” Looking at the areas in the Red River Valley, which are outside the pri-
mary flooding zone, Kristjanson said fields are “sopping wet.” One bit of positive news, she said, is that a great deal of water has already drained off the land west of the Red River. In previous floods water could not drain east toward the river because the flow was blocked by water that had spilled beyond the banks of the Red River. SEE FLOODS DELAY SEEDING, PAGE 2
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It might be the long winter, or the waiting for the Red River to crest, but farmers south of Winnipeg aren’t in a congenial mood this spring, says Ian Forrester of Letellier, Man. “Everybody is just bored and getting on each other’s nerves. We’re just fed up with it. We’ve had so much (flooding) in the last 10 to 15 years,” said Forrester, who farms 10 kilometres north of the U.S. border. Like many farmers south of Winnipeg, Forrester is waiting for the land to dry so he can proceed with spring planting. But water levels in the Red River, which are expected to exceed 2009 levels, the second largest flood in terms of water volume in the last 100 years, are rising more slowly than anticipated. As of April 18, the Manitoba government was predicting the river to crest near Letellier April 25. If that transpires the peak flow will arrive about 10 days later than 2009. Forrester knows the flood water will arrive later than 2009, because as of April 18, he could still drive to his farmhouse. “We were boating in 2009 by April 12…. This (flood) we haven’t got water over our road yet,” he said, explaining that when the water rises, he needs to take a boat to get from his property to Highway 75, the main route between Winnipeg and the U.S. border. Unless the flood water dries up quickly this year, Denis Houle, who also farms near Letellier, said he won’t be seeding until June. Houle, who grows primarily soybeans, canola and wheat on his farm, said it’s hard to know how the flooding will affect his seeding intentions. “Seeding is day to day with a flood because you seed when a piece of property is ready…. As for our seeding plans, that will change… depending on how things move.”