Heavy Prairie rains submerge crops, strand livestock

Repeated rounds of heavy rain are taking a growing toll across the Prairies, leaving crops under water, delaying spraying and making it difficult for livestock producers to move cattle and equipment.

Matthew Atkinson, a beef producer who pastures cattle in the Ste. Rose area and serves as president of Manitoba Beef Producers, said the region has seen close to 250 millimetres of rain in seven days.

“It was wet up there, it’s been really hard to get cattle out,” he said, adding that his own operation got off comparatively easy with about 50 mm, while areas along the Neepawa-to-Ste. Rose corridor were hit harder.

The wet conditions have made it difficult to move cattle or equipment, Atkinson said, with farm trails, corrals and municipal roads alike turning soft and mucky.

“Everybody’s been stuck a few times with four-by-four pickups and gooseneck trailers,” he said.

Highway 5 was also underwater at one point, with traffic being directed down to a single lane, Atkinson said.

The latest storm comes just weeks after torrential rains flooded parts of the Swan Valley, Stonewall and the Shellmouth area, washing out roads, stranding livestock and raising concerns about crop and forage losses.

Environment and Climate Change Canada issued rainfall warnings on June 30 for a broad swath of western Manitoba, including the Parkland, Riding Mountain, Duck Mountain and Swan Valley regions, warning that repeated heavy rain could lead to localized flooding, rapidly rising water levels and hazardous travel conditions.

A flash flood alert was issued that day in Neepawa, stating that overland flooding was either happening or about to happen in “multiple locations” across western Manitoba. The alert said many roads had sustained flood damage and were considered unsafe, and that travel was not recommended.

Data from Manitoba Agriculture’s Current Conditions network at 10 a.m. on June 30 showed the heaviest rainfall concentrated in the province’s northwest, reinforcing the rainfall warnings for the Parkland, Riding Mountain, Duck Mountain and Swan Valley regions.

On June 11, the government of Manitoba launched a disaster financial assistance (DFA) program for last month’s heavy rains, with the deadline to request the program set for Sept. 9 of this year.

Manitoba Beef Producers’ most recent online newsletter reported that overland flooding shuttered Manitoba Public Insurance’s mobile appointments in the Dauphin area, including mobile estimating and driver testing appointments.

Saskatchewan damage

The rainfall warnings extended into eastern Saskatchewan as well. Manitoba’s Hydrologic Forecast Centre said a high likelihood that the Saskatchewan and Assiniboine River basins in Saskatchewan would receive more than 60 mm of precipitation between June 27 and 30, with some forecast models pointing to localized totals exceeding 80 millimetres.

Environment and Climate Change Canada’s orange rainfall warning similarly spanned both western Manitoba and parts of Saskatchewan, citing the potential for highly localized rainfall in excess of 150 mm.

The wet weather has left standing water in fields that have remained saturated since seeding, said Cory Jacobs, crop extension specialist with Saskatchewan Agriculture.

“We definitely are seeing drowned out spots in fields in the province, especially on some areas where they is heavy clay soil or it has been wet since seeding time,” he said.

Bill Prybylski, president of the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan, said throughout much of east-central Saskatchewan, creeks are running higher than they did in the spring, and potholes, sloughs and ditches are full.

“There’s lots of acres that are under water, and I suspect the crop that is there is not going to survive,” he said.

Warm, dry weather in the next couple of weeks could make a difference, but every rain from here on out will only cause more damage, Prybylski added.

Peas and lentils are especially vulnerable to prolonged flooding, while wheat is more resilient. Prybylski has also seen canola fields enter the reproductive stage prematurely before developing enough leaf area to support strong yields.

“They don’t have enough of a leaf mass to support a robust crop, so there’s going to be significant yield losses in those fields,” he said.

The weather has also complicated spraying decisions, Jacobs added.

“Weed control has been a challenge to keep up to, with it being very windy or raining often, which is hard for producers to hit the proper rainfast for some herbicides or proper crop/weed staging.”

Most producers he works with avoid applying in-crop herbicides by plane because of the risk of spray drift, although aerial application is more common for fungicides and crop desiccation later in the season when fields are too wet for ground equipment, Jacobs said.

Drones face similar drift and coverage limitations, but interest in aerial fungicide applications increases during wet years because they avoid rutting fields and reduce crop damage.

“I think when they are good spraying windows, producers have been prepared and going hard to get as much sprayed as they can,” Jacobs said.

The delayed season is also raising concerns about crop maturity and disease pressure, Prybylski said.

“We started out late and it’s getting later, and how much do we risk running into frost in the fall?”

Flooding can be only part of the problem, he added, because in previous wet years, disease caused even greater crop losses than excess moisture itself.

Alberta seeing similar challenges

Wet conditions are creating similar concerns in Alberta, where repeated rainfall and limited opportunities for fieldwork are slowing crop development despite ample soil moisture.

The latest Alberta crop report said crops continue to advance, but development remains behind normal in many areas because of a late start to the season and frequent rain.

Soil moisture reserves remain well above average across much of the province, with the wettest conditions reported in the northwest, where more than half of surveyed land was rated as having excessive surface moisture.

Overall crop conditions remain near long-term averages, although performance varies widely by region, with northwestern Alberta lagging behind the rest of the province.

Gurcharn Brar, assistant professor of wheat breeding and genetics at the University of Alberta, said June rainfall around Edmonton has been unlike anything he has experienced.

“It’s awful, the amount of moisture we have in June, I would split that moisture over next five years of June,” he said.

Wheat has generally handled the excess moisture better than canola, while field peas have also struggled.

Saturated soils have made it difficult to get sprayers into fields, allowing weeds to gain ground, while excess rainfall has leached nitrogen from the soil, leaving some crops showing signs of chlorosis despite fertilizer applications.

Delayed crop development is becoming another concern, Brar said, because persistent cool, wet weather has slowed heat accumulation.

“If we get normal amount of precipitation going forward, yes, I think maturity will be delayed for sure by at least a week or a few days, if not more,” he said.

If the wet pattern continues into later summer, cereal crops could produce late green tillers and heads that mature unevenly, complicating harvest, Brar added.

He also expects disease pressure to increase because saturated soils and humid conditions favour root rots and other pathogens while limiting root development.

“Excess of everything is bad, and right now we are dealing with excess of moisture,” Brar said.

In Alberta and elsewhere across the Prairies, producers have few options beyond waiting for fields to dry, although additional fertilizer applications may be needed in some cases where nutrients have been lost to leaching, Brar said.

“This is actually also an important lesson for us, that we are not bigger than nature.”