It is purely coincidental, but it seems somehow fitting that this year’s Manitoba North Dakota Zero-Tillage Farmers Association annual workshop is taking place in Brandon during Manitoba’s first-ever Organic Week. At first glance, it would seem these two production systems are polar opposites. One aims to reduce or eliminate tillage, usually replacing it with chemical
Towards A Sustainable Future
Farmers Need Not Fear Food Safety Act
The grain can keep growing, the hens can continue laying and that pot of jam on the stove can keep bubbling away if the proposed Food Safety Act becomes law. Farmers raising grain and livestock for sale through conventional channels will not be considered “food premises” by the act, which has received first reading in
Celebrating Perseverance
Jack Wilkinson, one of the most respected veterans of national and international efforts to give farmers a policy voice, was eloquent in his brief description last week of the crossroads farmers in Manitoba faced a quarter-century ago. “It was not obvious that Keystone would be successful,” he told farmers and dignitaries gathered for the 25th
Crop husbandry makes a comeback
“Can you see anything else at this show that gives you 20 per cent more yield while spending less money?” – COLIN ROSENGREN When Colin Rosengren was looking for ways to improve the sustainability of farm near Midale, Sask., he turned to the best agronomist he could find – Mother Nature. It was by clueing
Sanitation key to keeping clubroot out of Manitoba
The best way to keep clubroot from damaging canola yields is to do whatever it takes to keep it out of your fields, Manitoba Agriculture’s plant pathologist told farmers attending Manitoba Ag Days recently. “For clubroot to occur, the pathogen needs to be present in the field,” Philip Northover said. That seems like stating the
Farmers and cowmen
The latest release from the George Morris Centre “Feed grains and livestock in Canada – a reconciliation” brings to mind the lyrics from a certain operetta performed by the Carman Collegiate High School back in the 1970s. “Oh, the farmer and the cowman should be friends… one man likes to push a plow, the other
Auger-Steer wins Inventor’s Showcase
Brandon With grain augers and conveyors going the way of farms – getting bigger – the days when a couple of farmhands could hoist them up and manoeuvre them around the yard and into position are gone. And using tractors to move them around corners and buildings in tight yards is no easy task either,
Manitoba farmers get a break on crop insurance premiums
Manitoba farmers will see crop insurance premiums fall by an average of five per cent in 2009, Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives Minister Rosann Wowchuk said Jan. 20. In her annual address to the opening day of Manitoba Ag Days, Wowchuk said the reduced premiums were mainly a result of lower claims by farmers
The party’s over. The hangover begins
Data from Statistics Canada’s annual Farm Financial Survey suggest the events of the last 18 months will live long in the collective memory of Manitoba farmers – in the form of a pounding financial hangover. The 2007 survey (the 2008 numbers are not yet released) would suggest farmers were quick to respond to the short-lived
Finding an economic “sweet spot”
The latest Canada West Foundation profile and economic forecast for Manitoba underscores a reality that still bites in the farming community. The wheat economy that built this province has, over time, been overshadowed by a highly diversified economy, which means it doesn’t grow as fast during boom times and it doesn’t fall as far during