The Long Lake region has just over 1.3 million acres of cultivated land and has just less than half a million acres in grassland and forages. The cultivated area gives rise to a high variety of crops. Crops include cereals of oats, wheat, barley, winter wheat, malt barley, rye, and durum; oilseeds include canola, flax, linola, mustard and safflower; pulse crops include field peas, lentils, chick peas and drybeans. The area has herb and spice growers that grow mainly caraway and coriander.

The land in this area is very diverse. Soil salinity reaches very strong to strong in areas close to Jansen and Nokomis. These areas are PFRA and Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food & Rural Revitalization pasture areas. To control the salinity, the area must be permanently covered with grassland to protect the fragile balance between productive to non-productive land. Most of the land has a loam base with clay to sandy soil making it possible for wind erosion to occur. The area producers have adopted minimum to zero tillage methods to assist against wind erosion. This means continual cropping which has increased the area's returns.

Generally speaking, our climate can be described as slightly warmer and dryer than other areas in the province. Some of this is illustrated by the Drought Severity Index which takes into account precipitation and evaporation over an 84 year period. (Source: Environment Canada) Flooding and extremely wet periods have not been a regular occurrence. Conversely, severe droughts are also uncommon, as more extreme heat temperatures are usually recorded towards Southern Saskatchewan. In a weather dependant economy, our area is at an advantage with the overall climate generally providing consistent growing conditions.

Comparing our producers economically to others can be difficult due to the volatile and weather dependant nature of farming. In any case, our producers have out-produced their counterparts in the greater agricultural census region 6A, as well as average Saskatchewan and Canadian producers in virtually all census periods examined (1986, 1991, 1996, 2001). Part of the reason for this is due to economies of scale, as the average farm size (both in capital and cultivated acres) in our region is greater than the average Canadian, Saskatchewan and 6A farms.

An in-depth overview of area production was developed by the Long Lake REDA and is scheduled to be updated in the near future. For more information on this Regional Agricultural Overview, please contact the Long Lake REDA office at 946-3011.

Photos F. Inkster