AManitoba Agricult ural Services Corporation official assured some skeptical Keystone Agricultural Producers members recently that using individual indexing is an accurate way to determine crop insurance coverage. Paul Bonnet, vice-president of research and program development, said the individual productivity index (IPI) smoothes out adjustments to each farmer’s probable yield. So if a farmer has several
The Individual Productivity Index Explained
CWB Single Desk To End, But When?
It’s not a question of if, but when Stephen Harper’s majority Conservative government will kill the Canadian Wheat Board’s monopoly over western Canadian wheat and barley. The Tories have promised since 2006 to abolish the CWB’s statutory single desk, but were stymied until winning 167 seats in the May 2 election, giving them a solid
Possible dike breach looms over Man. vegetable farms
Sandor Arendse can see and hear the big equipment preparing to breach the dike separating him and his family farm from the surging Assiniboine River, but as of Tuesday afternoon he hadn’t had any official word that he could be flooded. “It looks like I’m going to lose my home and my livelihood,” the onion
KAP Opposes Roundup Ready Alfalfa’s Release In Canada
The Keystone Agricultural Producers (KAP) has added its voice to groups opposed to the release of Roundup Ready alfalfa. “It’s a superweed,” Paul Gregory, a Fisher Branch farmer and alfalfa seed exporter said during debate on his resolution for KAP to support the Manitoba Forage Seed Association’s efforts to block Roundup Ready alfalfa’s release. “Once
World Needs Modern Agricultural Technology
CropLife International executive director Denise Dewar promotes pesticides and genetically modified crops from her Washington, D.C. office, but as a young, idealistic student, she dreamed of saving the world from pesticides. “At that time I was being influenced by the environmentalists’ very negative anti-pesticides environment,” she told the Canada Grains Council’s annual meeting in Winnipeg
“W
Wet, wet and wetter.” That’s how Mintoarea farmer Bill Campbell summed up conditions in his area of western Manitoba while speaking at the Keystone Agr icul tural Producers’ General Council meeting here April 14. It also describes conditions in KAP’s other 11 districts across agro-Manitoba – from the normally parched southwest to the waterlogged Interlake
Cellulosic Ethanol Plant Coming?
The straw Red River Valley farmers burn in their fields could soon be burning in their half-ton engines instead. An official with Shell Canada confirmed the fossil fuel oil company is looking across Western Canada, including Manitoba, for a site to build a cellulosic ethanol plant with its partner Iogen Corporation. “Shell has committed to
Don’t drive across flooding roads
The only sure way for drivers not to drown when crossing flooded rural roads is not to cross them, says Gordon Giesbrecht, associate dean at the University of Manitoba’s Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation. Even if a road isn’t washed out — something drivers can’t see — it takes just 18 inches of water to
GM Wheat Is Coming –Eventually
The need to make more money growing wheat will see genetically modified varieties commercialized in seven to 10 years, according to a leading American wheat organization. “I think this is a matter of when we have GM wheat products in the market, and not so much an if at this point,” Vince Peterson, U.S. Wheat
Marketing Survey Not Supported
The canola growers’ associations in Saskatchewan and Alberta are distancing themselves from efforts from a group of Manitoba growers who want to try marketing the crop through the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB). Last week the Manitoba Canola Growers Association (MCGA) ran a survey in the Manitoba Co-operatorand Western Producerasking how many tonnes of canola farmers