Re: Agricultural Disaster (was Re: [gardeners] Drought)
Bill Loke (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Thu, 24 Jun 1999 08:25:50 -0400
So that's where all our rain went! Even the potatoes have dust in their eyes
here. Maybe tonight we can get some showers and thunderstorms, they keep
promising...... Even a "rumbleguts" would be welcome here. We have been get
daily temps of 35C which is almost blood heat (37C). All sorts of tipburn on
plants yet my Elderberry stand is a wonder in bloom right now.
Friends are the flowers in the Garden of LIfe
Bill Loke USDA 4b
RR#1 Kars Ont K0A 2E0
-----Original Message-----
From: Barbara Jackson <jacksonb@mb.sympatico.ca>
To: gardeners@globalgarden.com <gardeners@globalgarden.com>
Date: Wednesday, June 23, 1999 8:17 PM
Subject: Agricultural Disaster (was Re: [gardeners] Drought)
>Evening gardeners,
>
>I haven't posted much lately (been away to England and back home to battle
>weeds and an overgrown garden). But, when I saw all this talk of drought,
I
>had to tel you all what we have been experiencing here in SW Manitoba and S
>Saskatchewan on the Canadian Prairies. I guess extremes of rain or no rain
>can be equally as devastating but here is what we have been contending with
>this spring.
>
>It is so WET up here, ducks are nesting in the ditches. We have received
>double the normal amount of rainfall for Manitoba in May and early June and
>Saskatchewan has almost tripled their normal rainfall amounts. Almost Well
>over 75% of farmers in Southern Saskatchewan and South Western Manitoba
>can't get on the land to seed their crops. Those that have made it onto
the
>land have trucks on standby in case they get stuck so they can be pulled
>out. It has been estimated that less than 50% of available land will be
>seeded this year in southern Saskatchewan and southwestern Manitoba. It
>will be devastating for the small family farmer with little or no crop
>insurance. Around here if you don't seed you aren't eligible for
insurance
>coverage for losses.
>
>And, since we are an agricultural area it is not only the farmers that will
>suffer in the end. One farm equipment dealership has gone bankrupt already
>(in an area where the water table is so high that the roads are actually
>collapsing). This will have an economic impact on my city as well as an
>even greater impact on the surrounding rural towns and villages. They are
>actually going to hire psychiatric nurses (my brother is onem of them)
whose
>exclusive job will be to counsel farm families in crisis in SW Manitoba
this
>year.
>
>So, when I see that I have a peony that just might not make it because it
>has been in standing water for 3 weeks or that the wind has blown over a
>couple of iris bloomstalks or that the majority of my lilies have rust, I'm
>trying to keep it in perspective. The peony may or may not come back and
>the iris will more than likely flower again next year, the lily will
survive
>the rust and come back even bigger and better next year. But, the farmer
>who loses the family farm after it has been in the family 150 years doesn't
>get a second chance when the bank forecloses. He/she doesn't get a second
>chance when they can't get credit to fix machinery or buy groceries for
>their families. This, too, shall pass for me but it might not for the
>farmers of the area.
>
>Sorry to unload guys. Hope nobody takes offense, just had to get it off my
>chest.
>
>Barb
>
>Barbara Jackson
>jacksonb@mb.sympatico.ca
>"Sunny" Manitoba (yeah, right!)
>Zone 3 Canadian Prairies
>
>
>