The Dry Spring of 2001

FTLComm - Swift Current - May 14, 2001

Saturday morning we set off across Saskatchewan on an unplanned road trip to Swift Current via Saskatoon and returned by Regina. In a trip like that you get to see the Western and Central portion of the province and there is only one story to tell, things are dry. It looks as you drive along, that the spring planting is in its final stages with most fields already seeded or just awaiting harrowing. Drought conditions in the light soil between Tisdale and Melfort are critical with drifted soil into ditches on both the North and South sides of the highways as winds have shifted so has the accumulating drifts.

Melfort to Wakaw and on to Saskatoon is somewhat more mixed in terrain and the drought conditions were less apparent although it was clear from the white patches on some hilly country near Wakaw that they wind had left those fields without top soil as they had been worked up and without to trash cover to protect the hills the wind erosion looked severe. These two pictures were taken just East of Saskatoon showing the high wind cloud (cirrus) formations that tell only of wind and more wind.

West of Saskatoon toward Rosetown the fields appeared similar to the sort of thing we see around Tisdale and Melfort, each tractor can be spotted miles away because of the plume of dust rising away from the working equipment. In this part of the world it was later in the afternoon and dust devils swirled every few miles. While having our ice cream in front of a Macdonalds in Saskatoon earlier we both had our ice cream turned black on one side and our hair filled with grit as a dust devil swirled over the street and parking lot pelting everyone and everything with grit.

As we travelled South from Rosetown the field dust seemed to be about the same but the farming practices North of Swift Current are not the same as those in the Tisdale area. Field after field we saw conventional disker seeding equipment and even a few press drills. One thing that was apparent in this part of Saskatchewan besides the drying sloughs and the red foliage growing where usually there would be water, was that the trees are much more advanced. Most of this country has been bare since early February when the warm temperatures then removed the winter's snow and this country has been open to the wind and sun ever since.

The Saskatchewan River is shockingly low, we noticed at the Muskoday Bridge on Thursday how sand bars are seen all over the main channel and at Saskatchewan landing the river is about eight feet lower than usual for this time of the year as the provincial park North of Swift Current marks the beginning of Diefenbaker Lake backed up behind the Gardner Damn at Outlook. Besides the river being very low the hills on each side of the valley are not even close to green as can be seen

in these pictures taken on the South side of the valley. Around Swift Current itself the fields are bone dry and we spotted circle field irrigation in operation yesterday near Rush Lake. Despite the parched landscape the salty flats from Herbert to Chaplin seemed to have there usual endless expanses of water and it looked like most of the planting in that area is finished. Close to Regina quite a different picture emerges as we saw standing water

in many fields between Belle Plain and Regina. The lake bottom gumbo of the Regina plains seems to have had lots of moisture through the winter and some this spring so that we saw fields that were to wet to plant and others where the seeding process is slowing moving along as the fields become available for planting.

North of Regina toward Southey and Raymore Sunday night there were field planting operations going in almost every quadrant we looked as we travelled North up highway #6. Perhaps the most remarkable scene was at Watson where we stopped right at 11:00PM and the whole parking area around behind and in front of the ESSO station was filled with "B" trains of anhydrous ammonia parked three abreast. Clearly, these trucks are filling a need for fertilizer and that demand is still strong indicating that planting in the Eastern portion of the province has still a long way to go. This set of blossoms in a yard in Swift Current help to balance out an otherwise dusty weekend drive.