Sask. farmer says storm leaving significant work, six-foot drifts behind

There are snowdrifts six feet high in front of every building door that Lee Stanley can see.

The Gainsborough-area farmer said Day 2 of the spring snowstorm hammering southeast Saskatchewan is looking rough for residents close to the Manitoba border.

It’s hard for Stanley to estimate exactly how much snow has fallen because the wind hasn’t stopped blowing.

“We put all our generators in the welding truck and the snow removal tractor and everything all inside the building so that we could get them out and not be buried in snow,” Stanley said Thursday morning.

“We have as much snow in the yard as we had all winter.”

It’s going to make for a significant amount of work in the days ahead, Stanley said, calling it a “nightmare” for livestock producers.

The storm came at the worst time for cattle producers, he explained.

“The babies hit the ground soaking wet and the storm always brings on low barometric pressure (which) brings on delivery,” Stanley said.

The weather means producers are faced with getting their newest additions inside to warm up and dry off, while making sure the rest of their herd are bedded down and comfortable.

South of the border, the storm’s impact is even worse. Stanley estimated the storm there is “probably one for the record books.”

Stanley remembered Minot saw 17 inches of snow in 1997, which “paralyzed” the city. This current storm has brought about 30 inches of snow to the city and winds faster than 100 kilometres per hour.

Photographs taken by Stanley appear below.

Storm taking its toll on cattle

While the worst of the storm has passed, cattle farmers aren’t out of the woods yet.

Gerald Karry, who operates a ranch east of Regina near Montmartre, is clearing two- to four-foot snowdrifts to get at his cattle.

He says his cows have done well riding out the storm, but he’s anticipating problems the more time passes with his animals exposed to the elements.

“The stress on the calves we’ll see in the next week to 10 days. (We’ll) see what kind of pneumonia we get,” said Karry. “The calves are wet. The wind is blowing. Twelve hours of stress is OK; 48 hours not so much.”

Karry had 200 cows and 140 calves to check on at the height of the storm.

His storm preparation started days in advance, as he moved cows that were ready to calve into the barn. The rest of the animals stayed outside behind windbreaks.

“They’re snuggled in there. They know where to go when the weather gets bad,” said Karry.

“The cattle in the windbreak panels, the best is to leave them alone (and) let them take care of themselves.”

As of Thursday afternoon, the snow was still blowing hard in his yard, but Karry said it was less intense.

Estevan ‘digging out from underneath’

Estevan Mayor Roy Ludwig was a busy man early Thursday … with his snowblower.

“On my driveway, it was over top of my blower, so (we had) like 3 1/2 feet,” Ludwig said. “That was with drifting and blowing. I bet we easily got — and I guess someone will tell us — 30 to 40 centimetres, easy.

“When you open our door and go down the steps, there’s about 18 inches of snow on the level in the front of our house,” he added. “Our sidewalk, where it drifted in, I’ve got 4 1/2 feet of snow that I blew out of the sidewalk. So where the sidewalk sits, there’s a wall of 4 1/2 feet of snow.”

Ludwig said the roads around Estevan were pretty bad on Wednesday night, but they were being cleared as Thursday progressed. By the afternoon, he said things were getting better.

“All the crews are out (and) we’re digging out from underneath,” Ludwig said. “Give us a day or two and hopefully things will be back to near normal.”