Manitoba farmers have expressed willingness to continue paying Monsanto to grow Roundup Ready soybeans even after the patent on them expires. A resolution passed at the recent Keystone Agricultural Producers annual meeting in Winnipeg calls on KAP to “lobby Monsanto to allow Manitoba farmers to continue to grow Roundup Ready 1 soybeans under a user
KAP Willing To Continue Paying For RR1 Soybeans
No Easy Recovery Options For Hog Producers
If you’re a hog farmer in a financial mess, there are three ways to get out of it – earn, refinance or sell out. Unfortunately, not one of them is easy, financial consultant Andrew DeRuyck told the recent Manitoba Swine Seminar in Winnipeg. Most producers would prefer to earn their way out if possible. It
MAFRI Extension Takes On A Whole New Mandate
When the Manitoba Agriculture Department in late 2004 announced a major reorganization to its extension service, some predicted the demise of farm extension in the province. After all, the signs weren’t good in the rest of the country. A number of provinces, especially Saskatchewan, Alberta and Ontario, were cent ral izing, downs izing and, in
New SCC Standard Announced For Dairy Farmers
Manitoba dairy farmers will see a sharp reduction in allowable somatic cell count limits for milk next year. The maximum allowable somatic cell count (SCC) will be lowered to 399,000 from the current 499,000, effective Aug. 1, 2012. The change shouldn’t affect most producers much, if at all. Manitoba’s current SCC average is 265,000, according
Little Change Predicted For New Growing Forward Programs
Don’t expect any big changes in farm safety net programs after Canada’s federal-provincial agricultural policy agreement runs out in two years. “More of the same,” is James Rude’s prediction for future business risk management (BRM) programs under a new Growing Forward framework. Growing Forward with its so-called “suite” of BRMs – AgriStability, AgriInvest, AgriInsurance and
New KAP President Assumes Office
Doug Chorney’s friends thought he was crazy in 1993 when he quit a well-paying job in the aerospace industry to go farming. But the career move made sense to Chorney. He was investing in the future of himself and his family. “It’s a choice I made and I didn’t regret making it,” he says. Now,
KAP Memberships Plummet, Checkoff Problems Blamed
Bad weather and chronic problems with a membership checkoff have combined to reduce the number of Keystone Agricultural Producers members to their lowest level ever. KAP ended 2010 with 4,178 paid members, down from 4,402 in 2009, the association’s annual meeting in Winnipeg learned. KAP now has fewer members than at any time in its
Manitoba Growers Edgy About GM Alfalfa Release In U.S.
Manitoba forage seed producers are dismayed, but not surprised that American regulators have released Roundup Ready alfalfa in the U.S. without restrictions. “Whoever thought that Roundup Ready wasn’t going to come to the market was living in a dream world,” said Adam Gregory, an alfalfa seed producer from Fisher Branch. The U.S. Department of Agriculture
Shoppers Rate Products By IPhone
Take your iPhone into a supermarket and go up to a product on the shelf. Hold the iPhone next to the bar code on the package and take a picture. Within seconds, a colour – green, yellow or red – comes up on the screen, along with a single-digit number. The colour tells you how
Heavy Snow Poses Risks To Buildings
Looking up from the phone, Meagan Ellis thought it was a strange gust of wind that popped out the sliding doors of her parents’ machinery storage shed and sent them flying to the ground. But what she really witnessed from the office window of Ellis Seeds north of Wawanesa Jan. 16 at 4 p.m. was
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
