Swan Valley farmers face heavy crop losses due to flooding

The Manitoba Agricultural Services Corp. office in Swan River is fielding a high number of service calls after heavy rains in the region.

The Swan River area is one of two hot spots in the province — along with Headingley — that MASC is focusing on, chief product officer David Van Deyzne told the Sun on Thursday.

“We’re in the process of moving staff into those areas, and we’ve got a number of drones and those kinds of things that we’re going to try and make sure (are available for use),” Van Deyzne said.

“Those two offices are certainly busy with calls about, ‘What should I do?’ or ‘What does my insurance look like?’ and that sort of thing … Our guys are pretty busy around there, so it’s noticeable for us for sure.”

He said many farmers are still evaluating the extent of damage and what their options will be, so MASC does not yet have a “great handle” on the number of claims it will receive.

A seeding deadline set for June 20 is also delaying insurance claims from being filed, as some farmers are waiting to see what may develop, he said.

Farm damage in the Swan Valley area appears to be significant in a number of ways, Swan River Progressive Conservative MLA Rick Wowchuk said.

“What I’m hearing on the front is, number one, there’s been a tremendous amount of flooding that has drowned out crops,” Wowchuk said Thursday.

“I took a drive out this morning and I’m still seeing a lot of water out in the fields. It’s just mud, and you knew that a lot of sediment was deposited, even on the fields that were seeded. So you know the chances of germination of that seed is nil to none.”

Farmers have also had their access to farmland impacted by the flooding, because bridges and roads are washed out in the area, Wowchuk said, adding that municipalities are going to need support in getting these thoroughfares fixed.

“The municipalities are going to need that money,” he said. “And when you get to disaster flood assistance, we’re getting mixed messages right now from the premier.”

Stan Cochrane, who farms north of Griswold along the Assiniboine River, told the Sun he is fortifying his property in anticipation of the river’s swell next week as water is released from the Shellmouth Dam.

“It’s supposed to peak about the 22nd or 23rd,” he said. “We’re trying to keep the Assiniboine River off our fields. I’m building dikes right now — we’re expecting another flood, maybe higher than the last one.”

The family farm has 1,000 acres of canola seeded and is diking 450 acres while expecting the remainder to be flooded, with no way to stop the water, he said.

Building the dikes will take between four and five days, he said.

The Cochranes are also fixing fencing on pastures further from the river as they expect pastures close to the river to be flooded.

The family’s farmland was flooded earlier this spring due to high flows in the river.

Meanwhile, MASC is aiming to turn around claims quickly this season for farmers that have been hit by severe impacts, Van Deynze said.

“We’re going to try and finalize those claims and get some money out as quickly as we can. The goal is to get money in the producers’ hands as quickly as we can.”

The surge in activity in the heavily impacted areas of Swan River and Headingley will not have a large effect on the corporation’s total year, Van Deyzne added.

While the damage in those areas is severe and substantial, conditions across the province “generally don’t look too bad,” so the corporation is not bracing for a “terrible year” of claims despite the significant flooding in some areas, he said.

The Progressive Conservative party put out a call on Thursday for Premier Wab Kinew and his government to clarify how agriculture producers will be supported following “devastating losses” after high volumes of rainfall.

“Some producers are facing such a level of devastation that crop insurance alone will not make them financially whole,” said Lakeside MLA Trevor King, the PC critic for municipal and northern relations. “These are farm families who need answers now, not months or years from now.”

Kinew announced Tuesday the province is changing rules to give disaster financial assistance to victims of last week’s flash floods in rural Manitoba.

He encouraged applicants to ignore the standard terms on the government’s website and forms that state insurable damages are not eligible for provincial aid.

“If you have somebody who’s lived in a community for eight or nine decades and they’ve never seen this kind of flooding, it’s reasonable to expect that folks in that area wouldn’t put up flood protection or they wouldn’t purchase overland flood insurance,” he told reporters at an event in Selkirk.

“Because of that reality of a changing climate bringing forward impacts we’ve never seen in certain parts of the province before, that’s why we’re looking at ensuring this DFA program is going to be there for people so that no one in rural Manitoba gets left behind, and we’re not going to let the rules, as posted on the website, stand in the way of doing the right thing.”

Several municipalities declared states of local emergency after torrential rain led to widespread flooding last week.

» cmcdowell@brandonsun.com, with files from Chris Kitching