The Manager of Public Works and Operations for the Rural Municipality of Hanover says soil drifting this spring was the worst he's seen in many years.

Wes Fehr says Sunday, April 29th was an extremely windy day, resulting in a lot of soil blowing off fields and into ditches and drains. This prompted the municipality to take action.

According to Fehr, they rented a piece of machinery that could blow the dirt back onto the field. Fehr notes they acted very quickly in order that the soil would be back on the fields by the time farmers started seeding.

Fehr says they blew soil from approximately six miles of drains alongside roadways. They ran the equipment for seven full days.

Hanover was initially expecting to spend between $8,000 and $10,000 but Fehr says it probably cost more like $10,000 to $12,000.

Even though there have been windy days since, Fehr says as long as fields have not been over-worked, the soil is less likely to drift after seeding.

Fehr says because we were in a wet cycle, it has been a few years since they last had to blow soil out of drains. If this dry cycle continues, Fehr says this may become more of an annual occurrence.