Meeyomoot Lake is the location of the family operation. (Against the Grain Organic Wild Rice/Facebook)

By Derek Cornet

Northern Agriculture

Northern wild rice well below average due to high water levels

Jul 14, 2020 | 3:50 PM

A major purchaser of wild rice in northern Saskatchewan is expecting 25 to 35 per cent of an average year at most.

“We’re not expecting a bumper crop that’s for sure,” Riese’s Canadian Lake Wild Rice Owner Lynne Watt said. “I think there is some rice out there, but I don’t think it will be anything close to an average year. It’s going to be way down as far as the volume of wild rice we’ll be able to harvest.”

The reason the wild rice harvest is expected to be so poor is because the high water levels at lakes across the region. Since the beginning of June, there have been multiple advisories issued by the Water Security Agency about above-normal stream flows in all section of the Churchill River system. While some lakes are higher than others, Watt believes some lakes can be one foot above normal.

The water level is key when it comes to specific growing periods for the wild rice. For instance, Watt noted 36 inches of water is the ideal level when it first starts out, so sunlight can reach the bottom of the plant and germinate the seeds. It’s also crucial when the plant reaches the floating-leaf stage at the end of June when there is the potential for the plant to rip from the roots and die.

“Once it’s established and there’s a bit of a rainy period, you probably would be okay, but generally this is such a delicate time for the plant and that’s why it is such an issue,” Watt said.

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Watt also mentioned 2020 will likely be the fourth sub-average year in the past four seasons. She said there could be price fluctuations as the product adjusts to supply and demand.

There are two other issues also hampering wild rice buyers and producers. Watt said there will be difficulties with the new coronavirus social distancing measures in place, as well as an increase in land leases by the provincial government.

“The government has imposed a huge rate and, for some wild rice growers, that’s a significant amount of money,” she said. “It’s thousands of dollars that lease rates will go up.”

Owners with Against the Grain Wild Rice are also expecting a below-average year as the water level at Meeyomoot Lake is one foot above normal. Garth Muirhead noted the patches are much smaller and the rice is being pulled up by the roots.

Muirhead hopes they are able to harvest some of the rice, but added they won’t be able to hire as many people as they usually do. He mentioned this is the company’s second below-average year in a five-year period.

“We have been doing this for five years now and we had a really bad year in 2016,” Muirhead said. “We normally only get over 100,000 pounds and, in 2016, we only got 5,000 pounds. We’re kind of expecting something like that again.”

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derek.cornet@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @saskjourno