Farmers will need to sharpen their marketing skills, while the grain industry works hard to keep the grain moving
Western Canadian farmers are smiling as they harvest a bumper crop, but grain shippers are nervous about getting it to market in a timely way. Grain prices are also down as stocks build globally. “This year is going to put the logistical system to the test,” Mike Jubinville, president and lead analyst of ProFarmer Canada
Can we move this bumper crop in a timely way?
Grain shippers are nervous about logistical hiccups amidst rising global stocks
Editorial: My beef with fabricated beef
I’m a bit confused by all the saving-the-planet hullabaloo over that $330,000 hamburger manufactured in the laboratory — the one the people tasting it said was ‘almost’ like the real thing. It was animal protein all right, fried in butter no less, not one of those concoctions of soy, brown rice, black beans or quinoa
It’s a little, but it’s a start
Conservation districts in Manitoba won’t exactly be swimming in cash after last week’s announcement of $750,000 out of the federal-provincial Growing Forward 2 pot for water management projects on farms. In fact, we wondered whether there wasn’t a zero or two missing after all the research that’s come out lately about the need for a
Leadership takes many forms
It’s safe to say that Wilf Harder of Lowe Farm and Ernie Sirski of Dauphin have been on different sides of a debate in agriculture a time or two over the years, but there is one thing upon which these farmers do agree. This industry needs more people willing to step up, speak their minds
One tool for a complex problem
History is full of examples of heated, ideological and rhetorical public debates that somehow miss the point. The controversy over genetically modified crops is such a case. The debate has generally fallen into two camps — the “Frankenfood” phenomenon, the question of whether we should be meddling with nature’s processes for genetic evolution and “feeding
A report worth reading
We’ve been somewhat skeptical of some of the recent efforts by the Conference Board of Canada to wade into the food and farm policy realm, but we were pleasantly surprised by the newly released report Seeds of Success: Enhancing Canada’s Farming Enterprises. From our perspective, authors James Stuckey and Erin Butler, do a stellar job
Manitoba farmers credited for using fertilizer efficiently
Manitoba farmers credited for using fertilizer efficiently New research by the International Institute for Sustainable Development has confirmed what Keystone Agricultural Producers president Doug Chorney already knew about how farmers manage fertilizer in this province. After comparing how much synthetic fertilizer Manitoba farmers use in every municipality across agro-Manitoba against the nutrients removed by crops,
Get used to it?
Just as water and climate expert Bob Sandford began his keynote address at a Winnipeg conference about water management last week, he received a text from his son back home in Canmore, Alta. It was about a river gone wild. As Sandford spoke on the science of why weather patterns are becoming more turbulent, resulting
New alliance to focus wheat research in Saskatoon
The federal government has joined with the Saskatchewan government and University of Saskatchewan to form a new Canadian Wheat Alliance, dedicated to improving yields and profitability of wheat. “The Canadian Wheat Alliance will improve the quality of Canadian wheat, and enhance Canada’s competitive position in the growing world market,” said federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz
A powerful engine for growth
Researchers have discovered an environmentally sustainable instrument that could increase world food production by 30 per cent, but they’ve been having a tough time getting it commercialized. Is it a plant with a novel trait, or a new herbicide perhaps, bogged down by excessive regulations or those silly activists? Or maybe it’s a new type