Harvest detour ‘timing couldn’t be any worse’

It’s been a good farming season for Dustin Wiens so far this year, but construction near his family’s grain farm south of Winnipeg has him worried about harvest.

Floodway Road in the vicinity of Glenlea Road was closed starting Monday while a contractor hired by Manitoba Transportation and Infrastructure installs a culvert through the dike. The closure could last 40 business days and will impact farmers in the Rural Municipality of Macdonald.

Wiens said the closed stretch is the only hard-packed, all-weather route available for hauling grain in and out of the area. Harvest has begun and with recent heavy rains, closing that path forces every fully loaded grain truck onto soft grid roads or detours that take five times longer, he said.

For farmers, that means increases in hauling costs and wasted time and fuel, Wiens said.

It also means a reduced ability to move crops during the narrow harvest window and a risk of damaging municipal roads that weren’t designed for heavy truck traffic.

“The timing couldn’t be any worse for farmers in the area,” Wiens said.

According to Wiens, farmers raised concerns with the RM when they noticed heavy equipment and signage being placed last week. Still, he said, the project proceeded Monday without adjustments.

Wiens believes it’s a “clear case” of critical provincial work being done with little regard for its impact on food producers during the busiest season of the year. By the time construction is over, he said, harvest will be over.

Wiens’ farm has about 1,000 acres of canola, wheat and soybeans. That’s 80 to 90 semitruck loads that have to come from the fields to the farmyard. Because of the closed stretch of road, Wiens estimates 15 to 20 minutes will be added to each trip.

The longer the crops stay in the fields, he added, the more chance there is of inclement weather degrading their quality. Wiens estimated if the crop goes from No. 1 wheat to feed wheat, it could cost him up to $100,000.

Brad Erb, reeve for Macdonald, said he has not received direct feedback from farmers but he is aware of the situation.

The Floodway Road project has been in the works for three or four years, but the municipality wasn’t involved with planning the timing of construction, added Erb, who is a farmer himself.

“I fully appreciate the business interruption that has happened there and it’s fairly unfortunate and inconvenient for them — no question about that,” he said. “The project is worthy, but the timing couldn’t be worse really in terms of the time of year.”

In a statement to the Free Press, a provincial spokesperson said Manitoba Transportation and Infrastructure “has been in communication” with the municipality and industry “during the planning and preparation in the early stage of the project.”

“Scheduling of the final construction was based on a number of factors that included project approvals, the required construction timing and minimizing impacts for local traffic and industry as much as possible,” the spokesperson said.

“MTI will work with the contractor to minimize the length of time the road will be closed and anticipates that the work will be completed in approximately eight weeks, weather permitting.”

The project will include the construction of a control structure with a sluice gate and headwalls.

Wiens said he understands the project is necessary, but wonders why it couldn’t have waited until next spring.

“I wish they would have just asked around the area a bit,” he said. “I’m at peak stress right now trying to plan everything with harvest (and) they just added a whole other layer to this complicated puzzle that didn’t need to be there.”

Meanwhile, the 2025 farming season has been “variable” for farmers in the keystone province, said Ashley Ammeter, whole farm specialist at the Manitoba Crop Alliance.

“Until quite recently a good portion of Manitoba has been dry — in fact, in some cases, it’s been drought conditions,” Ammeter said.

Some areas of Manitoba received more than 100 millimetres of rain last week, she added, which has farmers concerned about the quality of cereals in their fields.

“In many cases (there’s been a) complete 180 (degrees) as we’ve been approaching harvest and we’re (now) in that excess moisture position,” Ammeter said.

aaron.epp@freepress.mb.ca