An overwhelming sadness engulfed Gord Strick as he watched truck after truck roll into the Winnipeg stockyards..Grim-faced farmers unloaded their bawling cow and calf pairs, then drove out past a disturbingly long lineup of other farmers waiting to do the same..Some were there to cull herds they can no longer feed..Others, forced to throw up their weathered hands and accept defeat, were selling their entire herds. .Out of options, these beaten-down, hard-working souls must walk away from the only life they’ve known, the life of their fathers and grandfathers before them..Strick saw fathers and sons, husbands and wives, one farmer with his dog..“I hoped he wasn’t going to sell his dog to make ends meet,” Strick told Western Standard..“Looking at that line of drivers, it sorta hits you in throat. I know it’s happening, but it’s there in your face. These people are changing their lifestyles, selling out, or certainly downsizing. There they were, sitting with their animals.”.Manitoba farmers, particularly in the north, have been under siege from drought and grasshoppers..With pastures dried up and feed prices inflated beyond affordability, letting animals starve isn’t an option..They’ve no choice but to load up and head to Winnipeg Livestock Sales Ltd. that reported more than 1,500 head brought into emergency auctions the day Strick was there recently. Normally, the stockyards are either closed at this time of year or see a fraction of the cattle coming through..Strick, 63, a farmer near Inwood, 100 km north of Winnipeg, is in the drought’s epicenter. .But he saw the immensity of the desperation in the lineup as he waited with his brother-in-law, Clint Eskilson, who was selling about a dozen head of cattle..“There was truck after truck coming in. Then when you get up and unload and drive out a lineup is still as long… full trailers coming in,” said Strick..Strict knew every farmer felt alone despite being surrounded by farmers in the same dire circumstances,.They are alone. Help, like the rain, eludes them..Watching this “suffering and despair” Strick wondered where the government is, why farmers are “ignored and forgotten” by people they elected..“The MLA from our area could have been around. Crickets. People selling off the herds aren’t rich or flashy, but hard-working, tax-paying people who deserve acknowledgment from the government, not to be ignored or forgotten. Just something so you know you aren’t facing this alone.”.Yet, a disgraceful, oblivious Prime Minister Justin Trudeau manages to find $650 million to call an early election. .For many farmers, it’s too late. Others are barely hanging on, facing inevitable hard decisions..Strick is wondering how he’ll feed 120-head of cattle, a cross of Red Angus and Charolais..“My grandpa was here and then my dad. Now my brother and me are here,” he said..“Everything is burnt off brown. The pastures are right to the mud. What the heat didn’t get the grasshoppers got, Land is so damaged, even if you got a lot of rain, the grass isn’t going to just shoot up. It’s got to regrow right from the roots. That land that needs to be fixed.”.Six inches of rain would get things growing again. .“Usually, we have 500 acres we go over to get our hay supply. You figure on two bales to the acre. Well, we broke some of that up last year and the year before because the production was down. It was dry those years. We put it into oats. We cut it for green feed. That kinda got us through. We thought those years were tough. .“This year, we didn’t touch our hay land. It was so dry. What little bit did grow, the grasshoppers came in and stripped right down to the brown. The pastures are the same way.”.They’ll need 1,000 bales of hay to get through winter. They’re 800 short..“Everybody talks about getting through winter. You need so much feed to get through winter. But there’s still two or three months to get to winter,” he said..Everybody’s looking for straw which is hard to find. Farmers are travelling up to 160 km to haul straw home..Buying hay, which has more than doubled in price, is out of the question..“On a normal year, you can get straw for five bucks in the swathe. Lately, it’s been creeping up. Last year grain farmers wanted $12 a bail in the swathe. I thought that’s pretty pricey. Now I’ve seen straw bales for $50 in the field. Hay bales are $150 to $200 a bail.”.Normally a round bale costs $80..“No beef farmer is buying hay for that kind of money. You’ve got to do it with straw or maybe corn stover after they combine the corn. You’re going to have to supplement it with grain or pellets or something.”.Grain farmers face hiked fertilizers prices and poor crops..“They probably need the money too, I guess. I dunno. Everybody’s squeezed tight.”.Some farmers are borrowing money to feed their cattle. Others, who can’t do that, are the ones lining up at the stockyard..As bleak as it is, in true resilient farmer fashion, Stick clings to hope..“There’s always hope, always things you can do, right? It’s day by day, see what happens, I guess. The farmer has to get through this on his own. That’s kinda how beef farmers are. They just buckle down and do what they have to do.”.All the while praying for rain..Slobodian is the Senior Manitoba Columnist for the Western Standard.lslobodian@westernstandardonline.com
An overwhelming sadness engulfed Gord Strick as he watched truck after truck roll into the Winnipeg stockyards..Grim-faced farmers unloaded their bawling cow and calf pairs, then drove out past a disturbingly long lineup of other farmers waiting to do the same..Some were there to cull herds they can no longer feed..Others, forced to throw up their weathered hands and accept defeat, were selling their entire herds. .Out of options, these beaten-down, hard-working souls must walk away from the only life they’ve known, the life of their fathers and grandfathers before them..Strick saw fathers and sons, husbands and wives, one farmer with his dog..“I hoped he wasn’t going to sell his dog to make ends meet,” Strick told Western Standard..“Looking at that line of drivers, it sorta hits you in throat. I know it’s happening, but it’s there in your face. These people are changing their lifestyles, selling out, or certainly downsizing. There they were, sitting with their animals.”.Manitoba farmers, particularly in the north, have been under siege from drought and grasshoppers..With pastures dried up and feed prices inflated beyond affordability, letting animals starve isn’t an option..They’ve no choice but to load up and head to Winnipeg Livestock Sales Ltd. that reported more than 1,500 head brought into emergency auctions the day Strick was there recently. Normally, the stockyards are either closed at this time of year or see a fraction of the cattle coming through..Strick, 63, a farmer near Inwood, 100 km north of Winnipeg, is in the drought’s epicenter. .But he saw the immensity of the desperation in the lineup as he waited with his brother-in-law, Clint Eskilson, who was selling about a dozen head of cattle..“There was truck after truck coming in. Then when you get up and unload and drive out a lineup is still as long… full trailers coming in,” said Strick..Strict knew every farmer felt alone despite being surrounded by farmers in the same dire circumstances,.They are alone. Help, like the rain, eludes them..Watching this “suffering and despair” Strick wondered where the government is, why farmers are “ignored and forgotten” by people they elected..“The MLA from our area could have been around. Crickets. People selling off the herds aren’t rich or flashy, but hard-working, tax-paying people who deserve acknowledgment from the government, not to be ignored or forgotten. Just something so you know you aren’t facing this alone.”.Yet, a disgraceful, oblivious Prime Minister Justin Trudeau manages to find $650 million to call an early election. .For many farmers, it’s too late. Others are barely hanging on, facing inevitable hard decisions..Strick is wondering how he’ll feed 120-head of cattle, a cross of Red Angus and Charolais..“My grandpa was here and then my dad. Now my brother and me are here,” he said..“Everything is burnt off brown. The pastures are right to the mud. What the heat didn’t get the grasshoppers got, Land is so damaged, even if you got a lot of rain, the grass isn’t going to just shoot up. It’s got to regrow right from the roots. That land that needs to be fixed.”.Six inches of rain would get things growing again. .“Usually, we have 500 acres we go over to get our hay supply. You figure on two bales to the acre. Well, we broke some of that up last year and the year before because the production was down. It was dry those years. We put it into oats. We cut it for green feed. That kinda got us through. We thought those years were tough. .“This year, we didn’t touch our hay land. It was so dry. What little bit did grow, the grasshoppers came in and stripped right down to the brown. The pastures are the same way.”.They’ll need 1,000 bales of hay to get through winter. They’re 800 short..“Everybody talks about getting through winter. You need so much feed to get through winter. But there’s still two or three months to get to winter,” he said..Everybody’s looking for straw which is hard to find. Farmers are travelling up to 160 km to haul straw home..Buying hay, which has more than doubled in price, is out of the question..“On a normal year, you can get straw for five bucks in the swathe. Lately, it’s been creeping up. Last year grain farmers wanted $12 a bail in the swathe. I thought that’s pretty pricey. Now I’ve seen straw bales for $50 in the field. Hay bales are $150 to $200 a bail.”.Normally a round bale costs $80..“No beef farmer is buying hay for that kind of money. You’ve got to do it with straw or maybe corn stover after they combine the corn. You’re going to have to supplement it with grain or pellets or something.”.Grain farmers face hiked fertilizers prices and poor crops..“They probably need the money too, I guess. I dunno. Everybody’s squeezed tight.”.Some farmers are borrowing money to feed their cattle. Others, who can’t do that, are the ones lining up at the stockyard..As bleak as it is, in true resilient farmer fashion, Stick clings to hope..“There’s always hope, always things you can do, right? It’s day by day, see what happens, I guess. The farmer has to get through this on his own. That’s kinda how beef farmers are. They just buckle down and do what they have to do.”.All the while praying for rain..Slobodian is the Senior Manitoba Columnist for the Western Standard.lslobodian@westernstandardonline.com
