Manitoba farmers grapple with extreme weather, seek resilience

WINNIPEG · Nick Matheson awoke on June 9 to find a quarter of his cropland destroyed by flooding after 255 millimetres of rain fell north of Winnipeg in 13 hours. The Stonewall-area grain and cattle farmer says 300 acres were ruined, a promising early season quashed overnight. Since the storm, his herd of 100 cow-calf pairs has been plagued by insects and hoof rot from muddy conditions. Harvest has brought patchy wheat and flax fields with poor yields and thriving weeds. "I'm still in it," Matheson said in mid-October. "And I won't be out of it until the snow flies at this point. And even then, I'll probably be dealing with some residual effects come next spring."

Matheson is one of hundreds of farmers to make insurance claims with the Manitoba Agricultural Services Corporation for overland flooding this season. The provincial Crown corporation paid out $11 million for 478 excess moisture claims on about 157,000 acres that were too wet to seed, said David Van Deynze, the corporation's chief product officer. It also received 790 crop damage claims across 180,000 acres, with those payouts to be tallied after harvest. Van Deynze said insurance is an important tool when weather disrupts farming, as farmers often pay for seed and inputs upfront through loans. "Requirements to pay off those loans on an annual basis don't stop, whether you have a good crop or a bad crop," he said. "We hope insurance can keep the wolves at bay and allow them to continue to farm."

Excess moisture insurance has become a major part of the corporation's portfolio since its 2000 introduction, with drought being the other main cause of crop loss in Manitoba. Van Deynze noted that losses from the extreme drought of 2021, which saw a record $570 million in indemnities paid, might have been worse without modern farming adaptations like new crop varieties and minimum tillage. Still, he said there is often little farmers can do to prepare for localized natural disasters. "No matter how hard you try ... to mitigate losses, it seems like there's still times where Mother Nature's going to win out," Van Deynze said.

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Despite the challenges, some farmers point to adaptive practices that helped them weather the storms. Rancher Peter Tokar, who grows cash crops and manages 450 head of cattle on 2,200 acres near Swan River, Man., credits regenerative farming for saving his season. The region 500 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg was hit with a flash flood in June described as a once-in-200-year event, followed by a second major downpour less than a month later. When the water receded, part of his pastureland was covered with more than a foot of silt. Tokar said shelterbelts around his property kept floodwater debris at bay and his pastures recovered quickly thanks to years of rotational grazing. "What I have been doing actually worked really, really well," he said.

Tokar adopted rotational grazing for cost-saving reasons, noting his cows need less feed and leaving fields idle requires less fuel, labour and fewer chemicals. He has found like-minded peers through the Manitoba Forage & Grassland Association, which promotes regenerative practices. The association's executive director, Duncan Morrison, said soil and water health are vitally important to extreme weather and climate resilience. The grassland association has developed a climate forecasting tool called Aquanty to help producers understand how extreme weather will impact groundwater and what management tools can be deployed. "We're interested in how we can recharge the aquifer through grasslands and wetlands, which are both key parts of grazing systems," Morrison said. The Aquanty project recently expanded to several cattle-producing regions in Alberta, B.C., Ontario and Quebec with funding from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. Manitoba has 14 watershed districts that provide farmers with funding for projects protecting local water resources and improving climate resilience. Programs like the Prairie Watersheds Climate Program incentivize rotational grazing, nitrogen management and cover cropping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve soil health.

For Matheson, the sixth generation to farm his land, the extreme weather of 2026 stands out despite recent drought years. "It's the worst Dad's seen. I've never seen anything like this," he said. "But we just make do, pick ourselves up and try to not let it get in our head. ... You've just gotta roll with the punches."

With files from The Narwhal