It was the spring of 1965, and my parents had just returned to the farm after spending their first four years of marriage on a grand adventure of sorts, living, working and studying in other parts of Canada. First, they travelled to Newfoundland, where my father worked with 4-H Canada, organizing clubs in the new,
Editor’s Take: Child care a necessity
Editor’s Take: The digital divide
It was a pleasant, if bitterly cold, winter evening. The Winnipeg Jets were battling the Edmonton Oilers on one laptop screen, while my spouse’s family were catching up on a Zoom call on the other. As we closed the gap COVID has imposed amongst us, I couldn’t help but reflect how nice it would be
The great disruptor
Wade Barnes is straddling the digital/agriculture divide — and reimagining agronomy
Wade Barnes says he knows what the agronomy of tomorrow looks like. It’s a proactive system that uses data to model crop development, helping farmers make decisions every step of the way. The power of data analytics will fuel every step, from what variety to plant based on soil moisture, disease and pest pressure and
Editor’s Take: The winter of our discontent
Ordinarily at this time of year my colleagues and I would be headed west to Brandon, for the annual Manitoba Ag Days at the Keystone Centre. The first time I ever attended — being a transplanted Saskatchewanian — was more than 20 years ago, as a young reporter under the tutelage of my editors and
Editorial: Labels and legalities
It’s often said that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. But does the same apply to honey cut with high-fructose corn syrup? If would seem so, according to the front-page story of our Farmit Manitoba section, where Alexis Stockford digs into the sticky issue of honey adulteration. The problem for regulators
Editor’s Take: Agricultural support funding a political football
When one ponders the recent round of AgriStability negotiations, it’s hard not to think of a group of college friends out to dinner for the first time at a fancy restaurant. Federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau can fill the role of trust-fund baby, mindlessly ordering seafood appetizers, with the intention of splitting the bill at
Editor’s Take: Riding the tide
Will the farm of tomorrow be larger than the farm of today? Most farmers and people familiar with the industry would likely answer that question with a resounding ‘yes.’ After all, it’s been the pattern we’ve all observed for decades. Since the end of the Second World War, we’ve seen farm size grow, farm numbers
Canada’s mink farms brace for COVID
Producers have had time to increase biosecurity efforts at the farm level
Canada’s 40 mink farms are operating under heightened biosecurity requirements after reports of COVID-19 jumping from humans to mink in Europe. Alan Herscovici, an industry spokesperson who operates the website Truthaboutfur.com, said early reports out of Denmark and other European countries gave Canadian producers some time to prepare. “These farms have always had a certain
Editor’s Take: Un-plandemic
It’s an old axiom: if you fail to plan, you are planning to fail. Nowhere, it would appear, is this truer than when it comes to battling the COVID-19 pandemic. As our Geralyn Wichers reports for the front-page story in our Nov. 26 issue of the Co-operator, Manitoba processors who had plans in place to
Manitoba farm leaders watching U.S. closely
POLITICS | Trade, international relations and the tone of the conversation all of interest
POLITICS | Trade, international relations and the tone of the conversation all of interest
Manitoba’s agriculture sector is taking a wait-and-see approach to the prospect of a Biden presidency in the U.S. Bill Campbell, president of the Keystone Agricultural Producers, said the key thing he’ll be looking for is clarity on trade, when speaking to the Co-operator the week after the vote. “Trade will be the primary interest ofCyber-Savvy Farmer
