It is almost unbelievable to watch the story of the tragic fires in Northern Alberta. There are over 100 fires buring in Northern Saskatchewan as well but so far, no towns have been destroyed as was the case in Slave Lake. Here where I live, in SE Saskatchewan, I don't recall ever seeing this much water around before. I delivered a bull today just across the border in North Dakota, and they are in the same mess as we are. The bull buyer in ND told me that he has over 200 head to breed this year, and right now he expects he will be feeding hay to them at least until late June, because much of his pastures are covered with water, and many of the roads are either washed out or have been cut to allow water to drain. I phoned another bull buyer last night to see when he wanted his bull delivered and he said that right now, I could not get to him and he could not get to me for the same reasons... the roads are washed out. Just to get to the US port today, which is normally a hour drive ( to where the USDA vet is at) but today it was a two hour drive because all the roads I could normally take are closed because they are under water. Right here, there is no crop seeded but some are going to try to start in the next day or so. Some are wishing we could get another two inch rain, as they would know what they were going to do then... that is, they would park their seeding machinery and not seed anything. It seems strange that less than 100 miles from here, seeding is almost completed and they are hoping for a rain to soften the top of the fields again.
I have seen much more drought in my life than most anyone should ever have to experience, but this is the exact opposite situation. Some of my pastures are flooded and one of my main pastures is probably 50+% under water. It still beats drought but it does bring a new set of problems. On my trip today, I could not believe the size of some of the lakes that have formed this spring. I saw more than a few flooded areas that were over 1 mile wide and at least 2 miles long and they are feet deep rather than a few inches. I expect some of these areas will not be seeded for at least 5 years if we did not get another drop of rain.
What we are experiencing here is not in the same realm as the disaster experienced by losing everything you own in fire or tornado, as in many parts of the US.
