Any farmer in Manitoba who is considering a crop insurance claim this year – and it looks like there could be quite a few – owes a debt of gratitude to the visionary leadership of Duff Roblin. As the province’s Progressive Conservative premier between 1958 to 1967, Roblin’s most notable legacy was of course “Duff’s
Big Ditches Versus Big Ideas
A Special Case
You can hardly blame cattle producers farming in the Riding Mountain TB eradication zone for being a little testy. Some of these ranchers have been mustering their cattle on demand for the required testing since the early 1980s. That’s nearly 30 years. But when Co-operator reporter DanielWinters travelled to the area in the wake of
Spinning Straw Into Fibre
Greg Archibald is hoping a $1.12-million investment by two levels of government and Schweitzer-Mauduit will help flax straw “kick the habit” and get out of the smoking business for good. The vice-president for the Canadian division of Schweitzer-Mauduit International is well aware that for every tonne of flax straw he processes into fibre and shives
End of an Era?
You don’t have to like horses to appreciate the value the horse industry adds to Manitoba. As one industry participant once described it while standing on the sidelines at one of the many horse shows every summer, “There’s lots of money in horses – and I have the bills to prove it.” A 2009 study
This Is Efficiency?
We’ve all heard tales of the inefficiencies that have plagued centrally planned economies in far off places. The compounding effects – sluggish supply chains, lower productivity, missed delivery targets and people who could be working standing around with nothing to do – eventually drag the economy so deeply into an abyss, it takes a revolution
The Best Farm Support Program
Scholarly types come up with different numbers when they set about quantifying the returns on public investment in agricultural research, but they are all, without fail, extraordinarily positive. University of Guelph agricultural economist George Brinkman summed it well in a 2004 paper by saying agricultural research is one of the highest payback uses for public
The Urbanization Of Farm Policy
It has often been difficult over the past decade or so to find the word “farmer” or “agriculture” in the avalanche of policy statements put out by federal parties during election campaigns. Oh sure, there’s been the hot-button issues such as the Canadian Wheat Board, listeria and more money for hard-pressed farmers, but getting the
A Serious Lapse In Judgment
The facts in the case are not in dispute. All that’s open to question is whether the judge assigned to the case will impose a jail sentence instead of a hefty fine. A Steinbach-area trucker pled guilty to charges under the Health of Animals Act after Emerson border guards in Nov. 2007 discovered 14 badly
Mixing Math And Science
This quote attributed to Albert Einstein underscores the risks of mixing math with science. The two go hand in hand for practical analytical purposes, but whereas one relies on absolute proof through repeatable patterns, the other is based on accumulating empirical evidence. In other words, in order for a mathematical equation to be accepted as
Peak Does Damage Control
Peak of the Market did some serious damage control late last week when it negotiated a so-called “cease fire” in what had come to be known as this province’s Potato Wars. The marketing agency for Manitoba’s potato and root crops was in an untenable position – under attack by a vocal coalition of locavores dedicated