Canadian agriculture’s already acute labour shortage will worsen over the next decade, as high numbers of employees retire and the domestic labour pool continues to dry up. The Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council released labour market information (LMI) research last week, showing a gap of 59,000 employees between primary agriculture’s need for workers and those
Agricultural labour shortage will worsen, new report says
Cash receipt losses to Canadian farmers from job vacancies pegged at $1.5 billion, or three per cent of the industry’s total value in sales and production
Pulling the pin on the Prairie Improvement Network
The organization will create a scholarship endowment with remaining funds
After spending nearly two years struggling to reinvent the organization, the board of the former Manitoba Rural Adaptation Council (MRAC) is winding up the group. The Prairie Improvement Network (PIN) as it is now known, will cease to exist as of Mar. 31. Directors agreed last week, during a final annual general meeting held by
Shedding isolation
Men build all kinds of useful, lasting things in sheds, and one of them can be friendship in this peer-run grassroots group for guys
It’s not complicated. Tuesdays they play cribbage. Wednesdays they carve. They talk, share a few laughs, take a walk. Occasionally they’ll organize a day trip. They host a cooking club to try new recipes. Once in a while, they’ll take their tools and paintbrushes and help out another organization. ‘They’ are the 30 or so
Direct farm marketers are forming a new association
The former farmers’ market association is broadening its mandate
The Farmers’ Markets Association of Manitoba has a new name, new classes of voting memberships and a new mandate. Voting delegates of the former FMAM, organized in 2007, agreed last week to change its name to Direct Farm Marketing Association of Manitoba Co-op Inc. so it can represent the broader interests of all those who
Safety by design
Farmer feedback builds safer equipment
A guy walks into a tool department with his thumb bandaged, complaining about his new hammer. It keeps hitting two inches to the left. That’s actually not a joke. As any carpenter will tell you, you can hammer all day with a good hammer that’s the right fit for your hand, but if you use
Winnipegger introducing a new ‘old’ cheese to the market
Dairy Fairy cheese maker Galina Beilis has eaten this fresh cheese since she was a child. Now she’s making a business producing and selling it
Galina Beilis’s cheese might be new to Manitoba, but as she’ll tell you, there’s really nothing new about it. The recipe is as simple as it is old. Farmers and villagers have been making it for centuries and it dates back to the discovery of milk going sour when you left it at a warm
Illegal trench now repaired at Big Grass Marsh
The job ahead — finding a way to reduce flooding in the area — will be more complicated
An illegal trench dug at Big Grass Marsh before freeze-up last fall is fixed, with the province, Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC) and Whitemud Watershed Conservation District (WWCD) picking up the tab. Work crews hauled clay and rock to the site of the Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC) dam north of Gladstone in early February and filled
Take a 100-Meal Journey
Gate to Plate: Baked Eggs With Lentils, Peppers And Tomatoes and Chicken, Swiss And Vegetable Bulgur Salad
If you know you should be eating better, but don’t, you’re not alone. The national 2015 Tracking Nutrition Trends survey which asks Canadians questions about their dietary habits shows many of us appear to have just stopped trying, with 35 per cent saying they’re actually making less of an effort to improve their eating habits
St. Norbert’s Farmers’ Market grows — in winter
Customer demand is the main driver behind plans to expand to year-round operations
The temperature is hovering around -25 C outside, but shoppers at St. Norbert’s Farmers’ Market mill among its stalls like it’s a balmy Saturday in July. They’re indoors, of course, visiting Manitoba’s largest farmers’ market’s winter market. This is the second winter St. Norbert’s stayed open for biweekly Saturday markets after October, with about 30
Farm safety consultant keeps busy
Farmers have made the most of an opportunity to consult their farm safety expert, says KAP staff
A provincial consultant with expertise in workplace legislation has helped more farmers understand their responsibilities and obligations, say Keystone Agricultural Producer staff. “They’ve really filled her calendar,” said James Battershill, KAP executive director. “I believe that we’ve had 20 to 25 producers on the wait list for her to go out to.” Morag Marjerison was
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
