For Sale: One inexpensive but effective method of segregating different types of wheat according to quality and end-use characteristics. Well used, but in good condition. Reliable, low tech and user friendly – a proven performer. Reason for selling: Don’t like it. It gets in the way of lower wheat prices. Contact: Gerry Ritz, minister of
A New Home For KVD
Glen Nicoll — A Good Friend Passes
Just before press time Monday, we learned that Glen Nicoll, a longtime market columnist for the cattle industry in Manitoba, lost his battle with brain cancer early June 29. This is the second tragic loss that we report in this issue – columnist Paul Beingessner died last week in an accident on his farm in
(PART 2)
No one doubts the severity of the cash crunch burdening the current generation of hog producers in Manitoba. Watching one’s equity erode with each hog sold is not something we’d wish on anyone. Barns are being depopulated and producers are shutting the door. These investments were made in good faith, and while any investment is
Now What?
Capacity of the Morris hall hosting the June 22 hog rally: 1,500 Number of Manitoba farms raising pigs in 2008: 910 Number of farms raising pigs in 2001: 1,710. Number of farms raising pigs in 1971: 14,200. Number of potential hog industry investors attending the government reception launching the Manitoba Pork Advantage, November, 1996: 600
Keep The Prison Farms
It’s hardly surprising to hear that the six prison farms operated by Corrections Canada across the country collectively cost $4 million annually. Farming is a complex business – one that calls for skills that aren’t necessarily compatible with the skills or training required to successfully operate a prison. A lot of career farmers can’t make
The Great Land Grab
After the cold, wet and now frosty spring we’re experiencing, if foreign buyers came along and approached the federal government about buying up farmland on the Canadian Prairies, there’s a few farmers who’d be inclined to say, “Take it. Please.” That’s not likely to happen, at least not in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, because of legislation
Editors’ Picks: Public taken off U.K. strawberry fields
British fans of U-pick strawberries have found that not all strawberry fields are forever, the Reuters news agency reports. Strawberry producer Boddington Farm, considered one of the largest U-pick fruit farms in Britain, announced it has dropped the U-pick business after health and safety officials ordered extra safety infrastructure such as handrails between the strawberry
A Rural Champion
A few years back, as the list of rural responsibilities assigned to one cabinet minister in a particular federal government grew longer than could be comfortably stated without pausing to breathe, reporters took to unofficially referring to him as the “minister for everything in between the big cities.” In some ways, it was symbolic of
If It Ain’t Broke…
Most farmers have been blissfully unaware of how the Canadian Grain Commission ensures they get paid for the crops they work so hard to produce and sell – unless they’ve had the misfortune to deliver to a company that doesn’t pay. Even then, in most cases their losses have amounted to sweaty palms and restless
Cause For Concern
The last thing this province’s struggling hog sector needed was a global pandemic named after swine. Although the origins of the disease outbreak in Mexico have not at this time been traced back to pigs, the paranoia that has grown as it spreads human to human across the globe has been disastrous for the pork