“You can’t treat a farm building across the board.” – CHRIS JONES, DEPUTY FIRE COMMISSIONER The Manitoba fire commissioner’s office is recommending against a one-size-fits-all approach for including farm buildings under the provincial building code. Different kinds of operations should be subject to different building standards, said Chris Jones, deputy fire commissioner. “You can’t treat
Farm Building Code To Vary With Operations
Greyhound Lifts Threat To Suspend Manitoba Service
“The way we know Greyhound now is not the way we’ll know Greyhound in the future.” – manitoba government spokesperson Greyhound buses continued to roll this week as talks continued between the company and the province on ways to keep the carrier operating in Manitoba. The government is offering an as-yet undisclosed package of route
Late Fall Could Affect Health Of Trees
Acool summer and unusually late fall may have affected Manitoba’s largest perennial crop: trees. Leaves stayed green far longer than usual this year and some scientists suggest trees may go into winter in a weakened state as a result. It was common last week to see trees still with green leaves, which would normally have
Climate Change Forcing Insect Species Northward
The biggest harbingers of climate change may be some of nature’s smallest creatures: insects. A massive northward migration of insects is currently underway, signalling a rise in global temperatures, a scientific conference in Winnipeg heard. Over the past 25 years, 52 per cent of insects species have moved their natural habitats to the north by
Genetic Condition May Cause Bee Colony Collapse
“It won’t get into bees unless IAPV is integrated into them.” – ILAN SELA An Israeli researcher is claiming a possible breakthrough in the hunt for the cause of a mysterious die-off of honeybees in different parts of the world. A genetic predisposition to an obscure virus may make bees vulnerable to another as-yet-unknown agent
Anaplasmosis Strikes Again In Eastern Manitoba
“We’re trying to find the smoking gun.” – DR. JAG DHANDA, CFIA Manitoba’s second outbreak of anaplasmosis in less than a year has cattle producers wondering about the effectiveness of federal livestock disease control measures. Producers at a recent Manitoba Cattle Producers Association district meeting learned that nearly half the cattle in a southeastern Manitoba
Extension Requested For Old Cattle Tags
“Kick me when I’m down.” – ROBERT SHWALUK Some Manitoba cattle producers want a national agency to extend a rapidly approaching deadline for eliminating bar code tags used to trace cattle back to their original herds. Producers at a Manitoba Cattle Producers Association district meeting voted to ask the Canadian Cattle Identification Agency to allow
Debate Reflects Deep Divide Over Sow Stall Ban
“It’s about the pigs and the people, not just the pigpen.” – LAURIE CONNOR, U OF M Arecent speakers’ panel of animal welfare specialists generally agreed on phasing out sow gestation crates, but differed widely on how to get there. Sow stall opponents called for immediate action to eliminate sow crates, while others urged a
TB Eradication Plan Back To Square 1
TB task force is “not functional.” – RAY ARMBRUSTER, MCPA Ayear ago, Manitoba cattle producers felt they were finally getting somewhere in their decades-long fight against tuberculosis in Riding Mountain National Park. Parks Canada had signalled a willingness to eradicate some wildlife in Riding Mountain as part of a strategic plan to help control TB
Slow, Steady Progress For Manitoba Milk Producers
“What we’re experiencing are very stable prices.” – DAVID WI ENS, DFM Dairy Farmers of Manitoba recently amalgamated their nine regional districts into three. This tripled the size of local milk advisory committees. Some producers feel the committees are now too large and unwieldy. That was as close to complaining about their industry as milk
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
