Tracy Kingdon’s Grade 5/6 class at Tanner’s Crossing School in Minnedosa wasn’t using pens and pencils Mar. 10. Instead, they were shaking whipping cream into butter, getting an up-close look at seed varieties and digging up questions for Lise McQuarrie, one of more than 100 Agriculture in the Classroom volunteers invited to Manitoba schools this
Manitoba classrooms boost ag literacy
Minnedosa’s Tanner’s Crossing School is one of 235 Manitoba schools participating in the first month-long agricultural literacy event
Western Manitoba opens doors for stranded travellers
Communities in western Manitoba found themselves sheltering travellers Mar. 6-7 as the storm raged and highways closed
Life ground to a halt in much of western Manitoba Mar. 6-7, as heavy snow, winds and whiteout conditions closed highways, leaving many travellers stranded and some needing rescue. Brandon spent 31 hours with visibility below 400 metres. The same area saw up to 41 centimetres of snow, sustained winds of 71 kilometres an hour
Soil management, cover crops and recouping costs explored
Farm-specific cover crop integration was the backbone of the latest Manitoba Forage and Grassland Association grazing club workshop
Clayton Robins knows something about fighting soil salinity. His farm, located near Rivers, Man., sits on top of what he’s described as “starry night” soil, speckled with white pockets of high salt content. It’s an issue he says has largely disappeared since he first added a secondary NS simultaneous crop focused on soil management rather
Creating a safety culture at one Manitoba dairy
Workplace safety is a buzzword at Rosser Holsteins west of Winnipeg
Time is the enemy, particularly when it comes to injury risk, according to Henry Holtmann, of Rosser Holsteins outside of Winnipeg. “In times when we think we don’t have time for safety, we have to really step back and make time, because the consequences of not making time are actually you lose more time,” he
Four-part webinar series takes tile drainage education into the digital age
A recent educational effort by Agriculture Manitoba and the Red River Basin Commission means farmers are staying home to take in information on tile drainage
Manitoba Agriculture and the Red River Basin Commission have taken to the web on tile drainage. A series of four webinars is running until March 18, with topics spanning the on-farm benefits, downstream implications, environmental concerns and government considerations of tile drainage. “It’s established in other places, such as south of the border, but here
AMM looks for clarity on Power Smart
With the province looking to create a separate energy efficiency agency, municipalities look to the potential impact on recreational facilities and Power Smart programs
The Association of Manitoba Municipalities wants to make sure the Power Smart program will continue, even if it won’t be part of Manitoba Hydro. The creation of a separate energy efficiency agency was part of Progressive Conservative campaign promises in 2015, drawn from a 2014 recommendation by the Public Utilities Board. In the November 2016
Western Manitoba prepares as province releases its first flood outlook
The Southwest Flood Strategy Committee is among the regional groups preparing for possible flood conditions in western Manitoba
The Southwest Flood Strategy Committee came together for the first time in almost two years Mar. 1, and it’s turning rapt eyes to the spring flood forecast. The group was formed after the 2011 flood — which evacuated 7,100 people from their homes, damaged significant municipal infrastructure and left three million acres of farmland unseeded
What is 4R Nutrient Stewardship?
Manitoba is not like other agriculture areas looking to implement 4R, the room heard during the latest 4R Nutrient Stewardship training workshop in Brandon Feb. 23. The four Rs (right nutrient source applied at the right rate at the right time in the right place) form the backbone of Fertilizer Canada’s campaign to balance environmental
4R Nutrient Stewardship taking more to the web
The 4R Nutrient Stewardship initiative has expanded training modules, accreditation and data logging online
Manitoba’s 4R Nutrient Stewardship is heading online. The program, announced in 2013, is a shared undertaking by the Canadian Fertilizer Institute, Manitoba government and the Keystone Agricultural Producers. It aims to balance environmental and agricultural interests. Four years later, the initiative has expanded to encompass education and tracking online. Initially packaged exclusively through day-long accreditation workshops,
The phosphorus conundrum: low soil levels meet Lake Winnipeg pressures
Experts weigh in on managing low phosphorus levels in soil, while minimizing water health impact
Manitoba is in a difficult position of simultaneously having too much phosphorus and not enough. Manitoba Agriculture crop nutrition specialist John Heard highlighted this contradiction recently during a recent presentation at a nutrient stewardship workshop, noting phosphorus buildup in the Lake Winnipeg watershed has been a source of long-standing tension between regulators and agriculture. A