Cautious optimism is the general thought among residents in the R.M. of Dauphin going into the upcoming growing season.
Reeve Ernie Sirski delivered that message during Tuesday's State of the District event.
"There are so many factors in play this year. It is not just markets and weather. It is also tariffs and how things are going forward. Also, labour issues that we have, and farmers have the same issues with labour anybody else in the community has, to make sure we have the right people operating our equipment because we are talking equipment that is hundreds of thousands of dollars, and trying to make sure that we have the right people in place for that."
Sirski also looked ahead to capital projects in the region this year.
"We always have our capital works projects, and most of them involve putting in approaches and driveways and culverts to make sure that our residents and producers have access to their fields and yards. That is an ongoing process that we do every year, and we are continuing that moving forward. As far as development of new roads, this R.M. is pretty well equipped with the roads that we have so we do not have any big projects this year in that sense."
He adds that maintaining drains and ditches is also an ongoing project that will continue this year.
Sirski adds they are hopeful for a better year than last, when around 15 percent of fields in the R.M. went unseeded due to excessive moisture and flooding.
