Seeding delayed in northeast and central Saskatchewan

“The RMs have got a lot of work ahead of them to fix that and for the farmers to move around, it might cause some headaches that a road they normally would take, they might have to take an alternate route and go a longer distance to get the fields that they want to seed,” Hinz said.

It is going to take weeks before seeding can begin in his area.

“I would say the most optimistic is two weeks but more realistically, probably three weeks.”

This is much later than 2025, and Hinz said the delays will be very stressful for some farmers.

“Personally, I’m not too worried. I don’t have huge acres. I have a big drill so I can do it in 10 days. That would really be rushing it, but it could be done,” he said. “But I suspect some of the larger farmers who have the bigger acres their fingernails are going down.”

The rapid melt of snow led to flooding in the Quill Lake area. Dean Sawchuk farms between Clair and Quill Lake. His farm is close to a creek where the culverts couldn’t handle the high flow of water. He said water has filled the basement of the house and reached the main floor.

“That happened on Saturday morning and it’s at the same level, it hasn’t gone down,” Sawchuk said. “It’s still coming from the North. There’s still snow to melt so there’s still more coming.”

Sawchuk said they have moved some cattle to pasture on some drier ground, but there are a few animals still in the yard.

“We can’t seem to get at them because of all the water. We’ve just been taking them some square bales in the meantime to keep them going, hoping the water will recede enough that we can get them out of there.”

Sawchuk said water has come close to the yard before, but nothing like this. Obviously, it will delay seeding.

“It’s crazy when you think about it, when you’re hearing on the radio about farmers in the south and how dry they are. It’s such an extreme,” he added.

At this time last year, Saskatchewan farmers had already seeded 18 per cent of the crop.

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alice.mcfarlane@pattisonmedia.com

by Pattison Media

Seeding delayed in northeast and central Saskatchewan

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