The flooding and wet weather over the last month could be as bad as, or worse, for Manitoba's agriculture sector than the flood of 2011, according to Keystone Agricultural Producers.

KAP president and East Selkirk-area farmer Doug Chorney says not only will there be millions of unseeded and abandoned acres, but yields will also be down as many fields have portions that have drowned or were not seeded.

"Zero bushels per acre in an affected part of the field leads to a low yield when you look at a field's overall output. It's a big hit, because we need to be productive on every acre," he says.

In 2011, three million acres went unseeded, while another 500 thousand acres drowned after seeding. This time around, more of the crop is already established, notes Chorney.

"This year we have about a million unseeded acres, and a lot of seeded acres impacted by the overland flooding or straight rainfall accumulation," he says.

As in 2011, landowners along the Assiniboine River, the Portage Diversion and around Lake Manitoba are dealing with high water levels.

"With the Portage Diversion being used, we're going to see more pressure put on that area around the lake," says Chorney. "It's very stressful for all these people that are close to the water."

Livestock producers are also facing the possibility of a feed shortage, as forage crops and pastures are also suffering from excess moisture.

"I've talked to several people not in the southwest part of the province that haven't made a bale of hay. They're running out of pasture to graze because of standing water or poor pasture conditions," says Chorney. "It's affecting a huge part of agro-Manitoba."

There are business risk management programs, such as crop insurance, in place to help producers, but he says an AgriRecovery disaster program will likely be required.

"In an event of this magnitude, an AgriRecovery program is quite often brought in to help people dealing with all of the issues coming at them. We have to have that conversation with our federal and provincial government representatives to help everyone get through this," says Chorney.

Source - http://www.portageonline.com/