April really is the cruelest month. Or at least it was in Manitoba this year. Just as some fields, especially in south-central parts of the province, were turning black following Winnipeg’s sixth-snowiest winter on record, an Easter blizzard April 13-15, followed by a second storm days later, buried much of agro-Manitoba under 30 to 85
Late season snow makes for late seeding?
Fertilizer experts John Heard and Don Flaten have some crop nutrient advice
Analysis: Seed Summit long on rhetoric, short on specifics
Seed firms may not like the rules, but they don’t seem to have much sense of what they’d like to see replace them
Three meetings, over three weeks, and a total of nine hours later, Brett Halstead says he still doesn’t know what regulatory changes the seed industry wants. “I still haven’t really heard what the problems are,” the Saskatchewan farmer and chair of the Saskatchewan Wheat Development Commission said during the final online Seed Summit meeting Feb.
Seed regulation discussion has a long history
This conflict has been raging for years with few answers
Questions about what seed companies want aren’t new. Multinational firms have pushed for less regulation for years. The issue came up at the Prairie Recommending Committee for Wheat, Rye and Triticale’s (PRCWRT) meeting back in February 2013, in Saskatoon. “What is the one thing you think we should stop doing?” Stephen Fox, who at the
Farmers’ CWB class action lawsuit gets certified
Suit claims federal government wrongly used farmers' money to help privatize the Wheat Board
A class action lawsuit alleging the government of Canada and G3 Canada Ltd. unlawfully used millions of farmer dollars to privatize the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) has been certified after wending its way through the courts for 10 years. Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Chris Martin delivered his written judgment Tuesday in Winnipeg, clearing the
Canadian millers loyal to Canadian wheat
Russian wheat is arriving in Canada as part of finished food products
Canadian millers are not importing Russian wheat, but it’s possible Russian wheat is an ingredient in some manufactured foods imported by Canada. That’s according to Canadian grain industry officials, reacting to a recent Globe and Mail story. “I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the bread we buy in Canada contains Russian wheat,” Sylvain Charlebois,
How Russia’s war will affect farmers, food security
Canadian grain growers can expect profits despite higher input costs, while some people will eat less
The outcome of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine is unknown, but for Ukrainians it’s already a human tragedy of suffering, death and destruction, but also brave defiance. It’s likely to get worse — not just for Ukrainians and Russians, but for many of us. “Although commodity exchanges are already in chaos, ordinary folk
W.A. Grain’s farmer suppliers to get 80 cents on dollar
CGC program to provide $5.6 million of $7.1 million owed
Farmers owed $7.1 million by W.A. Grain and Pulse Solutions, which had facilities in Alberta and Saskatchewan, will get $5.6 million, or about 80 per cent of the money owed to them, via the Canadian Grain Commission’s (CGC) Safeguards for Grain Farmers Program. “While we regret producers didn’t get 100 per cent (of what they
Beware of ‘rent seekers’ and unintended consequences in farm policy
Ryan Cardwell, this year’s Kraft Lecturer, says government needs to have clear goals
Agriculture policy-makers need to be aware of ‘rent seekers,’ unintended consequences and the pitfalls of shoehorning more than one objective into a single policy. University of Manitoba agricultural economist Ryan Cardwell delivered that message online February 9 during the 12th annual Kraft Lecture (watch the full lecture on YouTube), named for the late Daryl Kraft,
Supply management views especially strong
Views proved unresponsive to new information, researchers find
Supply management is a controversial policy and was since implemented for Canadian production of milk, eggs, chicken and turkey in the 1970s. How people feel about it is shaped by their ‘big-picture world views,’ including wealth redistribution, inequality, free trade and political party support, said University of Manitoba agricultural economist Ryan Cardwell while delivering the
The Daryl F. Kraft Memorial Endowment Fund
The Daryl F. Kraft Memorial Endowment Fund was established in the memory of respected University of Manitoba agricultural economist Daryl Kraft who died in 2003. In addition to funding an annual lecture on agricultural policy, the endowment provides a prize for an agricultural policy paper prepared by an undergraduate student and a fellowship for a
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