Winds of change are blowing in food production system

Agricultural innovation and exponential growth will be necessary to meet environmental and consumer-driven market needs, according to Nourish Marketing Network’s 2023 Trends Report. In the past year, climate change came to the forefront, food inflation reached historic heights and consumers demanded action from brands, said Jo-Ann McArthur, Nourish Food Marketing president and lead author of[...]

Green Gold forage report sees alfalfa grow up to three inches

This is the sixth release for the Green Gold program assessing forage conditions in Manitoba. Reports will be issued from various areas of the Province (Eastern, Central, Interlake, and Western) in the weeks and months ahead. The reports below highlight the most recent forage conditions for Eastern, Central Manitoba and Western/Interlake: Green Gold report for Eastern Manitoba,[...]



Can organic no till work in the field?

Hairy vetch may be the key to reducing tillage in organic farming, at least in the short term. Martin Entz, a professor and agriculture systems expert from the University of Manitoba has been looking at mulches for organic weed suppression, rather than the tillage typically used. “We found that when we used the right mulch,[...]


Mixing and matching inputs and rotations

Farming for short-term yield will be different than long-term soil benefit. That’s not a new idea, but it has been driven home by 18 years of research spearheaded by researcher scientists Alan Moulin and Taras Lychuk of Brandon’s Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada research station. From 1994-2003, the pair’s team cross-compared organic, reduced- input no till,[...]



Pre-harvest glyphosate on soybeans?

Whether to apply glyphosate or a true desiccant before harvesting soybeans depends on the weeds in the crop, Manitoba Agriculture weed specialist Jeanette Gaultier, said Sept. 20 during the Crop Talk Westman webinar. “If your issues are winter annuals and perennials I would definitely go in with glyphosate because obviously it’s a systemic — it’s[...]

International farmers may ease Canadian human capital crunch

As other nations reduce their agricultural footprints in an effort to boost sustainability, their loss could be Canada's human capital gain, a new report suggests. "The immigration of scientists, data engineers, and entrepreneurs has been recognized as critical to Canada’s growth. A similar approach needs to be adopted to attract farmers," the authors wrote. The[...]


Green Gold (Central): Time to assess frost damage

Here is the first release for the scissor clipping project for 2013. This year we will be reporting from various areas of the province (eastern, central, Interlake, western). For the central report, the fields that are being sampled are in the south-central and Arborg areas. Site RFV PEAQ RFV NIR Height CP Arborg 268 212[...]

Ontario ag minister returns in another Tory majority

Ontario's governing Progressive Conservatives will head back to the legislature with their incumbent agriculture minister at the caucus table. Lisa Thompson, Premier Doug Ford's minister of agriculture, food and rural affairs since June last year, easily held her southwestern riding of Huron-Bruce in Thursday's provincial election by a spread of 15,594 votes over Liberal challenger[...]