Manitoba Pool offers hybrid pig

Manitoba Pool offers hybrid pig

Our History: August 1968

Manitoba Pool was in the swine business in 1968, and also owned a packing plant in Brandon. This ad in our August 1, 1968 issue offered Pool hybrid pigs as well as assistance in setting up a barn. If you owned purebred Charolais, there was good news in that issue. The second World Charolais Sale

The Clasp protein, seen here in an image from an electron microscope, 
helps cells divide within the roots and shoots of the thale cress plant.

Calling all plant cells

Internal communication system aids and 
guides plant development, researchers say

Western Canadian researchers have discovered an internal messaging system plants use to manage the growth and division of cells. These growth-management processes are critical for all organisms, because without them, cells can proliferate out of control — as they do in cancers and bacterial infections. Researchers from the University of British Columbia, along with colleagues


Sierra mix corn variety found in Oaxaca, Mexico.

Corn that finds its own nitrogen

Researchers have known about it since the 1980s but were only recently able to analyze it

Is it possible to grow cereal crops without having to rely on energy requiring commercial fertilizers? In a new study publishing August 7 in the open-access journal PLOS Biology, researchers describe a newly identified corn variety which acquires nitrogen by feeding its sugars to beneficial bacteria, which can in turn take up nitrogen from the



Ad-ventures in beer promotion

Ad-ventures in beer promotion

Our History: August 1961

Acceptance of advertisements for alcoholic beverages was sometimes a controversial subject for delegates at meetings of Manitoba Pool Elevators, the Co-operator’s former owner. Some argued that it should not carry alcohol ads, but others pointed out that it would be hypocritical for a company to on one hand refuse beer ads while on the other

The researchers studied Acmispon strigosus, a plant in the pea family that is native to the southwestern United States.

Reach for the top

It’s not just soil microbes that set crops up for success — it’s the right ones

Beautiful things can happen when plants surround themselves with the right microbes, according to researchers at the University of California (Riverside). They looked at Acmispon strigosus, a plant in the pea family, and found a thirteenfold growth increase in plants that partnered with a highly effective strain of the nitrogen-fixing bacteria Bradyrhizobium. The ability of


Co-op “Disker,” the new tillage tool

Co-op “Disker,” the new tillage tool

Our History: July 1947

While in Winnipeg, farmers were invited to visit the Canadian Co-operative Implements factory to watch the manufacture of this disker advertised in our July 1, 1947 issue. Some effects of the Second World War were still evident — the federal government had increased the annual sugar ration from seven to eight pounds per person per

South Sudanese women walk to the site of a UN’s World Food Program (WFP) food aid air drop near the town of Katdalok, in Jonglei State of South Sudan July 30, 2018.

Climate taxes could fuel food insecurity

The impact could easily outstrip the effects of a changing climate itself

One of the reasons climate mitigation systems like carbon taxes are touted is the growing risk of food insecurity in a changing climate. But new research suggests the policies themselves, if they’re not carefully designed, could fuel even more widespread hunger and food insecurity than the direct impacts of climate change. Those are the findings


The federal government says it’s putting millions into the fight to protect Lake Winnipeg.

Feds put up funds for Lake Winnipeg

Water quality and wetlands are key targets for the promised spending

The federal government will be spending $3.8 million over the next four years to fund groups working to protect Lake Winnipeg. Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna announced the funding for 23 new projects under the Lake Winnipeg Basin Program Aug. 2 in Gimli. The Lake Winnipeg Basin Program will take action to reduce

Reston-area ranchers fight flooding

Reston-area ranchers fight flooding

Our History: July 2013

After 2005, 2010 and 2011, 2013 was another wet year in the southwest. The front page of our July 11 issue had a story reporting on the problems cattle producers near Reston were facing after a 12- to 15-inch downpour two weeks earlier. Some were being forced to find alternative pastures. The deluge flooded basements