Manitoba Co-operator
Speaking at at Ag Days in Brandon Jan. 16 Agriculture Minister Ralph Eichler announced an average seven per cent drop in crop insurance premiums for the 2018 crop. Some other important changes to crop insurance were announced in a news release, including ending the pre-harvest deductible for corn and soybeans.

Lower crop insurance premiums, in 2018

The pre-harvest deductible on corn and soybeans is ending and CHNR wheat gets its own category

A host of changes, including lower premiums, are coming to crop insurance for the coming season. Speaking at Ag Days on Jan. 16 Ralph Eichler, the provincial agriculture minister told farmers they can expect to pay less, to no longer have pre-harvest deductibles for corn and soybeans, and to see changes in soybean coverage and

Birch Hills, Sask., farmer Florian Hagmann’s canola average averaged 70 bushels on 5,000 acres in 2017. Speaking at Ag Days Tuesday Hagmann said the “little things matter” when fgoing for top yields.

How to grow 70 bushel canola

Manitoba Ag Days speaker has a tip for growers looking to get the most out of their canola yields.

It’s not the pots and pans that count in baking, it’s the ingredients, Birch Hills, Sask., farmer Florian Hagmann told the opening day of Ag Days here Tuesday. Last year on 5,000 acres Hagmann’s canola averaged 70 bushels an acre. When it comes to maximizing yields its the little things that count, Hagmann said. It


Triple-stacked soybeans will hit fields sooner than dicamba-tolerant canola, says Monsanto's Robb Fraley.

Monsanto highlights research pipeline for canola, soybeans

Xtend soybeans with added glufosinate tolerance isn’t far off, but glyphosate- and dicamba-tolerant canola is still five or six years out

Dicamba-tolerant canola is coming and so is a triple-threat soybean, resistant to glyphosate, dicamba and glufosinate. That’s just some of what’s in Monsanto’s crop and weed-control pipeline, Robb Fraley, the seed and pesticide giant’s executive vice-president and chief technology officer told reporters during a conference call Jan. 4. Fraley sees great things coming from new

Lawrence MacAulay, the federal agriculture minister, recently spoke to U.S. farm groups in support of NAFTA.

MacAulay takes case for NAFTA to U.S. farmers

He’s the first Canadian minister to speak to the nearly 
100-year-old organization

Lawrence MacAulay’s speech in support of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was well received by an estimated 5,000 people attending the American Farm Bureau Federation’s annual meeting in Nashville, Tennessee Jan. 7. The bureau, the United States’ largest farm organization, also supports NAFTA. “My message to you this morning is the Government of

U.S. President Donald Trump celebrates after signing a pair of documents meant to promote rural internet access, after his remarks to the American Farm Bureau Federation convention in Nashville on Jan. 8. Photo: Reuters/Jonathan Ernst

Better trade deals coming for U.S. farmers, Trump says

In a 40-minute speech to the United States’ biggest farm organization, U.S. President Donald Trump spoke about free trade for 49 seconds. In 120 words Trump told the American Farm Bureau Federation’s annual meeting Monday in Nashville he was working to get U.S. farmers better trade deals. “To level the playing field for our great


Canadian Grain Commission inspection specialist Usman Mohammad demonstrating one of several CGC-approved sieves used to determine canola dockage during a grading school in Brandon Dec. 7.

Canola dockage tips from CGC grading school

During the dockage assessment process canola should be cleaned so farmers get the best possible grade

Here’s a tip for canola growers about dockage, conspicuous admixture and grades — pay attention to the sieves. If your canola is downgraded due to conspicuous admixture, or if you feel your dockage is too high, check with the buyer about what sieves were used to determine dockage — material that isn’t canola and buyers

Canadian Grain Commission (CGC) inspection specialist Usman Mohammad demonstrates how inspectors use CGC grade standard samples to assist in grading grain consistently.  PHOTOs: ALLAN DAWSON


Subjective? Not exactly

Western Canada’s wheat-grading system is probably more objective than you think

For 40 years Western Canada’s grain industry has dreamed about the black box — an affordable machine that would take a handful of wheat and quickly and accurately spit out its end-use quality on the elevator driveway. Like flying cars and cellulosic ethanol, it’s just around the corner, but never arrives. The black box is

Rapid Visco Analyzers are just one small step towards the longed-for ‘black box’ for grain testing.

Falling number, objective grain-grading debate not new

The grain industry explored machine testing more than a decade ago

Calls for “objective” grain grading on the elevator driveway, especially for falling number, have been around for years, ebbing and flowing with the quality of the wheat crop. These days it’s the Alberta Grain Commission and Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association (WCWGA) advocating for the change. They say since grain companies sell wheat to customers


Grain shippers in between legislation as rail service declines

Grain shippers in between legislation as rail service declines

The Fair Rail for Farmers Act is dead and the Transportation Modernization Act hasn’t become law

With rail service not meeting grain company demands, fears about a gap in remedies to deal with it have come to pass, says Wade Sobkowich, executive director of the Western Grain Elevator Association (WGEA). “What we predicted is exactly coming true,” Sobkowich said Dec. 14 in an interview. “We don’t have Bill C-49 (Transportation Modernization

Mike Gifford, Canada’s former chief agricultural trade negotiator, says the elements for a deal on agriculture through NAFTA are there without scrapping supply management.

NAFTA ag deal while keeping supply management possible

Mike Gifford says the negotiations are unique because agriculture doesn’t top the agenda

An agreement on agricultural trade under a renegotiated North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is possible without gutting dairy supply management, says Mike Gifford, Canada’s former chief agricultural trade negotiator. The United States is Canadian agriculture’s biggest customer generating more than $50 billion in annual revenues. Terminating NAFTA, as U.S. President Donald Trump threatens to