‘All at once’: Rainstorms will impact Manitoba’s growing season

Keystone Agricultural Producers says the recent storms could spell disaster for farmers this growing season.

The recent rainfall and flooding in southern Manitoba will have an impact on farmers already dealing with a challenging growing season.

Jake Ayre, vice president of Keystone Agriculture Producers (KAP), said Tuesday’s storms, which brought a deluge of rain to multiple Manitoba communities, were among the most intense he has ever seen.

“Some places got 10 or 11 inches of rain, that’s more than probably most Manitoba farms would get in a growing season, and you got that all at once,” he said.

Ayre said in the days following the storms, many fields have already been soaked and standing water remains. He said he doesn’t think many crops will be able to survive being submerged to the extent they are now.

“There will maybe be some reseeding attempted, but it’s tough to say in some of those regions that got that excessive rain,” Ayre said. “It won’t be days, it’ll be weeks, if not unfortunately longer, until you can even walk in the field, let alone get a piece of equipment back in there.”

This already complicates a tougher growing season for Manitoba farmers. A cold start has led to seeding progress being 25 to 30 per cent lower compared to previous years, and farmers in several regions also had to deal with wind and dust storms last month.

“It’s kind of just been one of those years where we started tough with high costs for our fuel and fertilizer, and now our weather is just throwing absolutely everything at us, so it’s been a tough year for Manitoba farmers,” Ayre said.