If the trendline continues soybean acres in Manitoba could easily top three million acres in just five more years — but don’t necessarily bet the farm on it. That’s the message Manitoba Agriculture pulse crops specialist Dennis Lange brought to the recent Manitoba Agronomists’ Conference on Dec. 14 at the University of Manitoba. He foresees
Three million acres of Manitoba soybeans by 2022?
Continued growth is possible, even probable, but there will be other factors weighing in against continued runaway growth
Agronomy will be key to growing soybean acreage
As the crop becomes a major feature of Manitoba fields, there will also be more challenges popping up for growers
If soybean acres continue to rise as expected, farmers are going to have to be vigilant, Dennis Lange said. “Rotation, rotation, rotation (is) very important,” he said. In the early years farmers didn’t see a yield reduction seeding soybeans on soybean stubble. But crop insurance data shows between 2008 and 2012 planting back-to-back soybeans resulted
KAP still working on carbon pricing policy
At the same time the Manitoba government is still consulting on a made-in-Manitoba plan to battle climate change
Keystone Agricultural Agricultural Producers (KAP) is fine tuning its carbon pricing policy even though Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister declined to sign a national framework to fight climate change at a federal provincial meeting in Ottawa Dec. 9. “It doesn’t change anything with our approach and what we are looking for in the system,” KAP president
Whither the Port of Churchill?
Amid calls for a new owner or nationalization, some say no matter who owns the facility, companies won’t export grain through Canada’s only deepwater, arctic seaport
Time is running out for the Port of Churchill say its supporters, but according to others it can’t be saved. They say its fate was sealed Aug. 1, 2012, when the Canadian Wheat Board’s (CWB) monopoly died. “It is urgent,” Churchill-Keewatinook Aski MP Niki Ashton said Dec. 15 in an interview after calling for the
Proposed Vancouver grain terminal has great rail connections
The Fraser River Terminal will be served by four railways and there are no bottlenecks, a company official says
A spokesman for one of the companies behind the proposed Fraser Grain Terminal says the facility will be efficient and state of the art. Casey McCawley, Parrish & Heimbecker’s (P&H) director of West Coast operations and a director of the terminal to be co-owned by P&H and Paterson GlobalFoods (PGF), says that’s good news for
VIDEO: Fighting fungus with fungus
Adjuvants Plus Inc. is working to register a new bio-control for fusarium head blight. Company president and CEO Bill Brown spoke about it at the 8th Canadian Workshop on Fusarium Head Blight on Nov. 22 in Ottawa. He sat down for an interview with Manitoba Co-operator reporter Allan Dawson to talk about how the product
New product pits fungus against fungus
If DONguard gets into the plant first, it occupies the space fusarium would take and also consumes invading fusarium, according to the company that hopes to commercialize it
A new weapon to battle fusarium head blight (FHB) fights fire with fire. The traditional tools have been agronomy, genetic resistance bred into new cultivars and fungicides — the latter sprayed on wheat and other cereal crops to protect them from the potentially devastating fungus disease that can cut yields and quality. But a fungus
Neonic makers respond to Health Canada actions
The plan is to phase out imidacloprid while clothianidin and thiamethoxam, popular in seed treatments, will undergo a special review
[Updated Dec. 9] – Several years ago when neonicotinoids were linked to bee and other pollinator deaths sparking calls to ban the insecticides, farmers and neonicotinoid makers strongly defended them. Now those products are under fire again due to their effect on aquatic insect life. Health Canada announced Nov. 23 plans to phase out imidacloprid
Another grain export terminal proposed for Vancouver
The way western Canadian crop production is growing the increased capacity is needed, say some industry observers
A second, new grain export terminal proposed for the Port of Vancouver, is welcome news, says University of Saskatchewan agricultural economist Richard Gray. Western Canadian grain production is on the upswing and because of rising demand in Asia, Canadian grain companies want to export through the West Coast because that’s where prices are highest. Additional
Canadian Grain Commission operating without commissioners as of Dec. 5
The CGC can continue to operate and fulfil most of its duties until the federal government appoints new commissioners
[Updated Dec. 7, 2016] – The Canadian Grain Commission (CGC) has no commissioners, but it’s business almost as usual, until new ones are appointed, says Remi Gosselin, the CGC’s manager, corporate information services. “We can continue to function on a short-term basis without commissioners, but we wouldn’t be able to issue orders or make regulations,”