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One by one, they used different words to tell the same tale.
But the worry was evident across the board.
“Dry….”, said one about the family dairy farm north of Minnedosa. “...starting to get really worried….”
“Grasshoppers already…full of them…clouds of them as you walk forward...,” chimed in a beef producer from the already semi-arid lands near Glenboro.
“Neighbour a couple miles over got smoked by a rain storm the other day,” added a mixed farmer from Strathclair area. “We got a couple drops only, not nearly what we hoped or thought we’d get… guess I can’t complain compared to some of the others here but…we sure do need more rain…”
They, in this case, were members of the MFGA board sharing small talk chit-chat updates before a mid-June mixer organized to introduce them and bird surveyors from the Province of Manitoba and Birds Canada.
While some areas of the province may be absolutely fine, and might even be hit by rain over the weekend and storms forecast for this week, on the whole, things are dry. Provincial precipitation maps are coming in below 50 percent normal precipitation May 1 - June 11, 2023 with a wide swath of darkest, driest brown colour right across the middle of the province from border to boreal.
Farmers are worried. Which in a big picture way makes one wonder why water management, water retention and water conservation are not higher priority among, well, everyone.
Across the board, projects and programming and other similar efforts primarily aimed at carbon always include water benefits as a key outcome. But are we emphasizing the water-boosting, farm-benefiting abilities of these programs and practices enough? Is it because, on even our driest day, we are only tomorrow away from the next all out soaker that we are hoping for and need? Is it because there are fall back insurance policies (thank goodness) and Ottawa-launched recovery triggers through government and producer group collaborations toward bigger agriculture recovery?
As we take prescribed steps to sequester carbon and work toward Canada’s commitment on climate change and implement carbon-storing BMPs is it perhaps time to really accelerate and increase awareness around the good of these practices for our water resources, and by doing so, actually help position the carbon sequestration efforts even more solidly?
Around our MFGA board table, we talk often - and rightfully so - about the role healthy soils play for all of us, and in fact, have played in civilization. Time and time again, we bring forward the fact that the healthiest of soils can be water-saturated and water-friendly in slowing and stowing water flows and increasing water absorption. And we also talk about how if we manage the soil for water needs of the farm, the carbon storage potential increases via most soil-friendly practices.
I don’t know, it just seems as we face down the first hard core signals of another potentially dry year, that we could – and should - start championing easy-to-engage proactive water mechanisms to farmers, from BMPs to nature-based infrastructure to incentives to hydrologic modelling and forecasting tools that enhance, maintain, plan for and sustain our water resources for farmers and society with water at the forefront alongside all our ongoing carbon efforts.
I’m purely an armchair quarterback on this topic. But I see and hear about our water woes. And honestly, I don’t know if we will ever carbon sequester our way out of a drought; but I sure do think we can water-smart our collective way into more carbon storage.
And, that’s a huge win-win in my eyes.
Muchos Grasses ALL,
Duncan Morrison, MFGA Executive Director
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