“We’re a holding pond for Winnipeg.” – LORNE HAMBLIN Thick, gooey mud squishes under Lorne Hamblin’s rubber boots as he slogs through a field which should be sprouting green shoots. Instead, it’s a sea of heavy muck caused by retreating flood water and made worse by an inch of rain the day before. Hamblin stops,
Floodway Makes Upstream Flooding Worse, Valley Farmers Say
Beef Trade With Colombia Restored
Colombia will reopen its doors to Canadian beef and livestock, raising hopes for a breakthrough in Canada’s beef trade with Latin America. Colombia will accept 5,250 tonnes of Canadian beef annually duty free, yielding sales of nearly $6 million a year. Another expected $1 million worth of livestock and genetics sales will make the total
U. S. Processors Defiant On COOL
“It depends on how the political winds blow in terms of how strong he’ll try to push it.” – JURGEN PREUGSCHAS, CPC U. S. food companies are refusing to follow a federal government request to increase country-of-origin labelling (COOL) measures on meat, in a possible showdown with the Obama administration. A recent Canadian delegation to
Urban Agriculture Offers New Possibilities For Industry
“It’s going to grow.” – IAN BARNETT, FORT WHYTE ALIVE It’s been a late, cool spring but lettuce and spinach are finally starting to poke through the soil on Simon Hon’s farm. Hon and three fellow workers are already watering the emerging plants and getting herb and tomato seedlings ready for planting. As he carefully
Canada’s Trade Hopes Raised
Canada expects to increase its beef exports to Europe, now that the U. S. will be able to do so. The U. S. and the EU have reached a four-year agreement in principle to increase American shipments of hormone-free beef to Europe. In exchange, the U. S. will gradually eliminate certain tariffs on EU products.
Manitoba-North Dakota Border Flooding Issue Flares Up Again
“We want all the drainage to occur as nature intended.” – NORTH DAKOTA OFFICIAL Bryon Heinrichs steers his pickup truck westward and drives cautiously along a rutted embankment with bare cropland on both sides. The fields are slowly drying out after being flooded by the spring melt four weeks earlier. That is, some fields were
Anaplasmosis Strikes Cattle In Eastern Manitoba
“It seems to be limited to this one area.” – DR. LYNN BATES, CFIA Manitoba’s first anaplasmosis outbreak in 40 years has produced 305 infected cattle, or reactors, on eight farms in the eastern region of the province. The herds are all in an area west of the Winnipeg River in the rural municipalities of
Hog Industry Fights Against Swine Flu Backlash
“Importers from other countries are really nervous about buying right now.” – JURGEN PREUGSCHAS, CPC Canadians are being urged to eat more pork as the hog industry mounts a publicity drive against a backlash from the H1N1 Influenza A virus that has become known as swine flu. The Canadian Pork Council and its marketing arm
Massive Dairy Farm A Forgotten Chapter In Manitoba History
“He was a pretty amazing guy.” – LOUIS BALCAEN They stand like lonely, abandoned sentinels – two massive concrete silos in an empty field gazing sightlessly at the sky. They and a few nearby tumbledown buildings are all that’s left of what was once one of the largest dairy farms in North America. At its
Land Use Policies Should Reflect Reality
“We don’t want to be reorganized to fit the sewage system.” – DAVE YOUNG, LOCAL RESIDENT Can land be considered farmland if it hasn’t been farmed for years? Ask Dave Young. Young sees vast expanses of “derelict” farmland in the Rural Municipality of Reynolds in eastern Manitoba, where he lives. But the Canada Land Inventory
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