An upcoming pilot project is promising livestock producers some long-awaited answers on predation. Manitoba’s Livestock and Predation Working Group is about to start a three-year research pilot, which has been in the works for years since the working group formed in 2013. The province has announced $300,000 to help launch the Livestock Predation Prevention Project,
Livestock predation pilot given green light
Producers fighting predation loss got some news they’ve been waiting for Feb. 7
Beef producers urge consideration for land improvements
Beef producers have a long list of changes they’re pushing with the province, including more room for land improvement values
Beef producers want to roll land improvement costs into what people are bidding for when Agricultural Crown Lands come up for auction. In late 2019, the province said it would no longer be in the business of buying land improvements when a lease rolls over, one of a swath of changes made to the Agricultural
Feds promise funds for hog disease risk pilot
Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau was in Winnipeg last week to announce over $482,000 to enhance risk management in the pork sector
Manitoba’s pork industry will get funding to revamp risk management against diseases such as PED (porcine epidemic diarrhea), federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau announced in Winnipeg Feb. 13. Bibeau announced over $482,000 in federal funds for the Manitoba Pork Council. The funds will be used to launch a two-year pilot program meant to, “create an
Another winter of headaches for potato growers
Unharvested acres were already more than double last year’s historically hard harvest, now some of that crop is rotting in the pile
Manitoba potato growers are facing the inevitable result of a second extremely challenging digging season — elevated losses in storage. Wet weather in September and early October kept producers out of the fields, while a three-day snowstorm over the Thanksgiving weekend dropped upwards of 75 centimetres of snow in areas of south-central Manitoba, followed by
Warm weather grants reprieve for livestock producers
Manitoba’s winter has been comparatively mild but is it enough to get feed supplies through the winter?
A so-far mild winter has helped bolster feed supplies, but producers aren’t out of the woods yet. The weather has given livestock producers some reprieve compared to last year, when several weeks of consistent temperatures below -30 C hit at already strained feed supplies. Livestock specialists are still most worried about poor nutrition for the coming calving and
Gas rations lifted at Co-op cardlocks
Manitoba producers have been operating under fuel caps at Co-op cardlocks since early February
Producers will not have to worry about fuel caps the next time they fill up at a Co-op cardlock. Federated Co-operatives Limited (FCL) has lifted its restrictions on fuel volumes a week after starting to ration fuel at cardlocks in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. The company announced the lifted restrictions Feb. 13. Why it matters:
Riding takes the reins at Manitoba Beef Producers
Dianne Riding of Lake Francis is the new president of the Manitoba Beef Producers
The Manitoba Beef Producers (MBP) will have someone new at the helm in 2020. Former vice-president Dianne Riding was named president of the organization following MBP’s annual general meeting in Brandon Feb. 6-7. Riding is entering her seventh year as director of MBP’s District 9, an area stretching north on the eastern edge of the
Running down the cause of the runs
Vets want producers to know for sure what they’re fighting before trying to treat calf diarrhea
The province and local veterinarians want beef producers to stop shooting blind when treating calfhood diarrhea. Dr. Cathy Clemence of the Russell and District Veterinary Clinic is urging producers to bring a manure sample to their vet before placing bets on an uncertain treatment plan. “Typically the producer tends to (think), ‘The calf has scours.
Waiting on word for forage insurance
Manitoba Beef Producers has highlighted forage insurance issues it would like to see addressed
Producers are waiting for details of the province’s promised forage insurance review. The province announced the review last year as producers came off another disappointing grazing season and were facing the prospect of feed shortages and high feed prices. Agriculture and Resource Development Minister Blaine Pedersen says he wants to get to the bottom of
Access resumes at Co-op refinery in wake of gas rationing
Manitoba farmers say rationed fuel, the latest symptom of the labour dispute at the Co-op refinery in Regina, threatened to disrupt farm operations
Manitoba’s brush with fuel shortages, thanks to an ongoing labour dispute, may be at an end. On Feb. 7, Regina police took down blockades put up by locked out refinery employees around the Co-op Refinery Complex, Federated Co-operatives Ltd. announced Friday morning. Trucks were able to access two loading facilities, the company said, and fuel