Weed problems and flooded out acres!!!

[SASKFARMER3]

OK what percent of your fields are flooded out. Simply when your out spraying just do a simple calculation. Also if we are kept out of field till next week and it rains again how bad will weeds get. We got worst fields last few days but boy can the weeds jump with the heat. (Monday and Tuesday)

[Hopperbin]

I figure 10 of mine is under water or drowned out.
Some nieghbours say 15
Whole shit load of yellow especially in barley. Another inch and there will be a major crop disaster here. Area is 60 to 70 percent planted. Canola looking good.
Wheat better than barley but another rain will likely change the wheat to poorer. Peas looking good but they will soon need more nutrients and they are not going to get them with a shallow root. Still have not got sulpher on some of my canola, will need to do that soon also.

[BreadWinner]

I would say %40 of the fields that we managed to get seeded are dead. There are large black areas in the fields that the weeds wont even grow in. The soil is so saturated that there is no oxygen let for plant growth. This is going to be worse than anyone has even predicted. Rail cars parked with nothing to haul, better sell your CP&CN stocks they are going to have a very lean year with no gravy money from your farm. CWB will probably have to lay off half the staff with nothing to market. Im glad I have no board crops or you may have to send to CWB a cheque. JUST REMEMBER THEY RETURN ALL YOUR MONEY LESS MAKETING COSTS. I bet the per bushel marketing cost will go through the roof you may get nothing for your crop once they pay all their staff stress money.

[freewheat]

Hey guys, I have a suggestion. For all of you guys who are boycotting the regress show this year, take the fuel you were goingt to use to get there and take a drive from Wadena to Canora, Wadena to Lintlaw, etc. Your eyes will not believe what you see. At any rate, the 10 percent seeded here actually had me nearing tears for the guys who seeded that day in May. It is a write off. Yellow on the hills even, 30-50 acres drowned outright per quarter. Grain bags every where, unreachable, grain put in tough in most cases, how long will it last? Regardless of how inadequate the 50 bucks will be for me who hasn't seeded and will not seed a thing, I cannot fathom how poor these crops are going to be for these guys.

Can't spray unseeded stuff from ground. I spent 10 000 on my friggin tractor this year, and never seeded an acre. Never even tried to pull it in the field. Couldn't. BUT, the big red beast got a good 3 hours on her today pulling semis around the yard whenever they had to move three feet, they needed pulling, broke chains, bent mud flaps, made ruts, and just crazy.

I too do not know what the answer is, but the two levels of govn't should and must do it right. If bankers know there is something big coming in say october, they should be able to hold off on shutting us down. A quick, undeliberated cash injection is a mistake it needs to be case by case. I also think they should take into account those areas to whom this has happened for three of the last five years as well.

The moratorium on drainage on ag land in the fishing lake basin MUST be lifted, as this is what screwed our area so bad these last few years. We are not allowed to drain our own friggin land.

[norton17]

Draining land isnt what caused the problem. Ludicrous amounts of rain is. I hate to sound like I dont care...but nooone else wants your excess of water either.

It seems ridiculous that your answer to the problem is to flood out peoples home and cabins that they worked so hard for. The cabin owners cant drain the lake so they'll be stuck with wrecked property. If your neighbor was allowed to drain his water on to your land and you werent allowed to drain it off...you'd be pretty PO'ed. Same situation as you're suggesting.

Think about it. Everyone feels bad for the people who cant seed or finish seeding...but the answer is not to bring doom and gloom to others.

[freewheat]

"Draining land isnt what caused the problem. Ludicrous amounts of rain is"

BINGO.

If you are at all familiar with fishing lake, you will immediately have to conclude that the cabins/homes wrecked, are mostly built in an obvious area that has flooded before. As you stated correctly, drainage isn't the problem, wicked precipitation is.

In the Sask water study on th issue, they concluded agricultural drainage had an impact of some 2-6 INCHES on the lake levels.

Again, I will say the last 3 out of five years has been too wet to seed in this area. I maintain that if we could drain the land, and get crops growing there and using up some of the excessive soil moisture, the situation would get closer to rectified.

I am sorry for the losses down there at the lake. I know several owners who have had bad flooding issues. BUT, as you and Sask water have said, the problem is not agricultural drainage. The extra 2 to six inches would have made no real difference.

I find it a bit ridiculous that in a historical high production area, farmers are supposed to listen to people with recreational properties mainly, and be forced to not take care of their land. You are quite concerned about the cabin owners property they worked hard for. What about mine? 3 out of 5 years of little seeding might break me, and many others, in part because of the ridiculous 2-6 inch moratorium.

So it comes down to this. Recreational property, (with some exceptions) or a farmers ability to produce grain?

As well, there are many nicer lakes around where these guys could build a cabin on. I have never understood the draw of this glorified slough they call fishing lake. The fishing can be great. But if I built my house on a flood plain, (Read Ottman beach, for example), would I get reimbursed. I doubt it. Yet we fishing lake drainage basin farmers are told we can't save our land and our livelyhoods, because some people built cabinsinside the obvious high water mark of a water body.

At any rate, take care, and I hope if you have a cabin there it has not been affected by these past few years of unprecedented rainfall. It is not my drainage causing flooding at fishing lake.