COMBINES FLOATING ACROSS WATER TO HARVEST THE 2005 CROP

“I will be pressuring the governments, both provincial and federal, to take notice of
what is happening in their own backyard.”

YORKTON – Garry Breitkreuz, Member of Parliament for Yorkton-Melville traveled to the Prairie River-Sommes area Wednesday, to see for himself the devastation caused by 17 inches of rain. The rain, which began Aug. 23, fell over a three week period, creating for farmers a horrific harvest and a disaster which could very well last years.

“I have never seen anything like this,” said Breitkreuz. In addition to a tailgate meeting with about 30 area farmers, Breitkreuz spent Wednesday afternoon touring the flooded region. “To see the number of you, who got off your combines to speak with me, indicates just how horrible the situation is.”

To say the rain has delayed harvest is an understatement for the producers in the RM of Porcupine. Saskatchewan Ag and Food is reporting 76 per cent of the province’s crop harvested – farmers in this RM have yet to reach the half-way point. And what they are going through to get to that point is hard to fathom.

Water sits in the fields in the Prairie River-Sommes area just like it would following the spring thaw. However, unlike spring when longer days and warmer weather is sure to come, producers are running out of time to get this year’s crop off. Field after field stands with broken wheat and barley heads, graying canola, and tire ruts from where a swather or combine may have attempted a go. Swathing has virtually gone by the wayside – those that had attempted to cut down their crop found their swaths were dropping into the water.

“Until you get onto the field, you have no idea how much water is under there,” said Elgin Stegemann, who farms in the area with his father Craig.

In the past three weeks alone, one young farmer spent $27,000 on a straight-cutter, $22,000 on a grain cart, and $9,000 on tires. Neighbouring farmers spent days rigging up their combines with dual wheels just to get on the field. After that, they spent days pulling each other out of the mud-soaked fields.

On Wednesday, the Stegemanns were straight-combining a 450-acre barley crop. About 50 acres of the crop, harvested and sold prior to the rains, went malt. Since then the same crop has been downgraded to feed barley. In several spots while combining the field Wednesday, Elgin raises the combine’s header so that it rides above the water, but still takes off any barley standing in the water. Waves of water actually precede the combine. Left behind is about half the crop, heads intact, but broken from the stem and lying on the ground, and tire ruts that no machine will be able to erase next spring.

“We were trying to be patient, we didn’t want to destroy our fields,” said Craig. “Now we’re in panic mode and trying to salvage what we can.”

Elgin transfers his load of barley from the combine to the grain cart, which is then pulled by tractor to the grain trucks waiting on higher, dryer land. Since the grain trucks were getting stuck in the field, grain carts have become a necessity this year. In fact 43 grain carts were shipped to the area from Preeceville in just the past couple weeks.

Between the combines, the tractors used for pulling out stuck equipment and towing grain carts, the grain trucks and the grain dryers running non-stop, fuel costs alone are eating up the harvest.

“This is really hurting the young guys,” said Craig. “They have no equity. They are doing all of this on borrowed money. They have off-farms jobs, their wives have off-farm jobs, and they don’t know how they are going to keep going.”

“It’s really hard, because I’m bringing my dad down too,” said Elgin who began farming full-time with his father 10 years ago. “He’s going to have nothing left when he wants to quit.”

Despite the difficulties and damage they are causing their fields and machines, the farmers have to surge forward under the terms of Crop Insurance. “They are all about salvage and that’s what we’re trying to do,” said Craig, adding, “I’ve got contracts to fill and I don’t think I’ve got enough grain.”

The tour of the area includes a stretch of the road where Craig describes a canola field literally flowing across the road. A day which brought seven inches of rain caused the swathed canola to run with the water into the ditch. Once the ditch filled, the water and canola spilled onto and over the road. The canola still lies in both ditches and neighbouring fields. Another field is of peas, swathed before the rain, now sprouted to the ground. Hay crops contain huge, rotten, round bales. Almost halfway up the bales is a black line indicating how much water the bales sat in. Field after field looks the same way.

No help
Just prior to meeting with the farmers, Breitkreuz was informed by the office of Saskatchewan Agriculture Minister Mark Wartman that no help would be coming for these farmers. Breitkreuz was told Crop Insurance and the CAIS Program would cover the farmers’ losses. “If they don’t have crop insurance, that’s a business decision,” reported Wartman’s office.

“The farmers of the RM of Porcupine are being failed by both CAIS and Crop Insurance,” said Breitkreuz. “CAIS is an income stabilization program, not a disaster relief program. I said that last year when this riding was hit and devastated by the Aug. 20, 2004 frost, and nothing has changed in 2005.”

In fact, many farmers Breitkreuz spoke to on Wednesday said they have filed claims, waited CAIS’s processing period and still have nothing. “They’re now being told that more CAIS staff is being hired to process the claims,” said Breitkreuz. “While these farmers have creditors banging down their doors for payments, CAIS is hiring more staff to process overdue claims? This is appalling.”

Meanwhile, Crop Insurance failed the farmers long before now. In the Stegemanns' case, a wet spring meant not all fields could be seeded this year. However, since they were able to the majority of their crop in the ground, they were unable to qualify for unseeded acreage. “That is still crop that we didn’t get in and we’re getting nothing for,” said Craig, adding Crop Insurance is targeted to the smaller 1,000 acre farmer.

Breitkreuz will be taking the photos and stories from the Sommes-Prairie River farmers to Ottawa next week so that all members, including the Agriculture Minister, can see how immediate and desperate the situation is.

“The RM has declared this a disaster situation. I can’t understand why the Province of Saskatchewan, the premier and the agriculture minister aren’t doing anything,” said Breitkreuz. “I will be pressuring the governments, both provincial and federal, to take notice of what is happening in their own backyard. Our producers need help.”

-30-

Pictures of the harvest and crop damage in the RM of Porcupine