A small delegation of western Manitoba municipal leaders returned from a meeting in Winnipeg last week saying the province needs to fast track the consultations it promises to hold on night hunting. A six-member group of western leaders met with Sustainable Development Minister Cathy Cox and staff January 24. They were disappointed to hear only
Municipalities want action on night hunting
Landowners say night hunting has become a dangerous and growing problem in rural Manitoba
Glenboro woman tends tiny tropical garden in her home
A south-facing sunroom on a Glenboro-area farm home sees a tropical plant oasis in rural Manitoba
Ernestine Sepke doesn’t need to travel south in winter to be surrounded by orange, avocado and banana trees. They’re growing in her sunroom on the side of her Glenboro farm home. Some are so tall they’re brushing the ceiling. All were started from local seed — fruit bought at Glenboro Co-op. “I just stick them
Profitability could be easier to achieve through organic: 2017 COP analysis
Per-acre profitability is markedly different compared to conventional, provincial estimates of production costs show
Organic farmers potentially have a shorter road to profitability than their conventional neighbours in 2017, according to provincial costs of production budgets released recently. The most promising crops between the two systems are radically different and there’s marked difference in per-acre profitability, according to numbers shared by a Manitoba Agriculture farm management specialist at an
Our stone soldiers
A new book Remembered in Bronze and Stone profiles 130 of Canada’s bronze and stone Great War memorials, including many of these century-old heritage sites found across rural Manitoba
It has been nearly a century since Foxwarren’s stone soldier began his vigil in this tiny western Manitoba village. The war memorial where he stands bears the names of 15 local young men who died in the Great War of 1914 to 1918. These stone soldier statues are a familiar sight in Manitoba, and notably
A soybean isn’t a soybean anymore
With more varieties to choose and new technologies to use, growers must ask more questions about what to grow — and what their neighbours are putting in
More soybean crops for Manitoba this summer mean farmers must be extra vigilant about what everyone else is planting, says a provincial pulse crops specialist. In a talk dubbed ‘A soybean isn’t a soybean anymore,’ during St. Jean Farm Days, Manitoba Agriculture pulse crops specialist Dennis Lange and farm production specialist Terry Buss cautioned farmers
New safe handling program announced at Ag Days
CASA launches BEGRAINSAFE program
A new exhibit for the BEGRAINSAFE program launched by the Canadian Agricultural Safety Association is on display at Ag Days this week. The interactive trade show display and a mobile entrapment trailer demonstration unit in the Westman Place Arena aim to help educate farmers about the risks associated with handling grain. The risks are rising,
More emphasis should be placed on soil health, MCDA speaker says
Cover crops, reduced tillage, crop and livestock diversity can all help reduce watershed challenges
We’ve all had those moments when we realize what we do most of the time matters more than what we attempt once in a while. One of those light bulbs snapped on for Ryan Canart while sitting at a soil health conference in Alberta awhile back. The district manager for the Upper Assiniboine River Conservation
High-tech fertilizers offer great promise
More expensive fertilizer likely cheap compared to future N20 pricing
The fertilizers farmers use will one day be manufactured from algae or hydrogen fuel, not natural gas, and they’ll be ‘SMARTer’ too, said a speaker at St. Jean Farm Days last week. These will be long-lasting sensor-based nano fertilizers, not likely to be nearly as easy to handle as current products, and which may reside
MCDA updated on progress of Aquanty project
Conservation districts could one day use the program to run water-based scenarios in their jurisdictions
It’s no crystal ball, but when a new computer modelling program now under development is complete, a much clearer picture how various flood and drought scenarios could impact the rural landscape will emerge. Delegates at last month’s Manitoba Conservation District Association annual convention heard more about how a new HydroGeoSphere model under construction will work
Study says faster Internet speeds not enough
The Rural Development Institute says increasing the culture of use in rural areas is equally important to making faster broadband available
A new study by the Rural Development Institute (RDI) in Brandon says rural residents will need help becoming more Internet savvy as faster broadband services become available. “Everybody treats broadband with a mentality of ‘build it and they will come,’” said RDI research associate Wayne Kelly. “What we’re finding, though, is that there is a
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
