Severe flooding near The Pas leaves farmers struggling

Tim Berscheid has been farming in the RM of Kelsey near The Pas for more than 30 years. He’s now worried about running out of options after severe flooding stranded 400 of his cattle on a small piece of land.

“It’s gotten to a crisis level now,” an exhausted Berscheid said on the phone Tuesday evening.

“I fed them up tonight and I have enough hay for another two days but after that I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

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The 400 cows and calves were stranded near some of his winter feed that happens to be nearby but it’s running out fast, according to Berscheid. The only way he can access and feed his cattle is by canoe and once the food runs out, he doesn’t know how he’ll feed them.

Berscheid said that water being pumped out of a watershed run by the province is part of the cause of the flooding. He claims the drainage system isn’t working properly and in some areas there is no flow.

“When you got a plug in the bath tub and you keep pumping water in what do you think will happen? And we’re in the bathtub,” Berscheid said.

He’s calling on the province and the municipality to help deal with the situation, “I’ve called and written and all they say is, ‘it’s wet.'”

But the Reeve believes the drainage system is flowing properly.

“It’s overland flooding from a lot of rainfall through basically the whole summer,” Rod Berezowecki, Reeve of the RM of Kelsey said. “Everybody’s having issues.”

He also says there are ten pumps running “24 hours a day”.

“We’re working right now with the province,” Berezowecki said. “If we don’t see a bunch of rainfall in the next week we should gain on it in the next week or so.”

“Manitoba Agriculture was contacted by the affected producer,” a Manitoba spokesperson said. “We understand that the producer faces challenges and Manitoba Agriculture will be available to offer expertise and support with regards to feed rationing for adequate nutrition, feed analysis, financial consultation and the opportunity to locate additional feed through the provincial hay listing.”

The RM of Kelsey is approximately 620 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg.