The attic of Peter Pauls’ tidy two-storey garage is filled with giant runts, white homers and Warsaw Schmetterlinge, also known as Polish butterflies. They are all pigeons, although you won’t find the latter just anywhere. “They’re the ones with the feathers on their feet,” he explained. “They are bred for show, but they do fly.”
Hobby comes home to roost
Fossil fuel decline could change the outlook for perennial grains
Conservation and agriculture need not be at loggerheads in the fight to preserve and restore the tattered remains of North America’s Prairie grasslands. “We can have conservation as a result of (agricultural) production,” Wes Jackson, founder of The Land Institute, told participants at the North American Prairie Conference via Skype. A proponent and developer of
Growing local gains new ground
Digging up knowledge: Manitobans sign up to eat local and reap the rewards of local know-how along the way
Deb Versluis and her family aren’t just digging in — they’re digging deeper. The Tyndall-area family of four is taking part in Food Matters Manitoba’s Dig In Manitoba Challenge. The goal is to have participants spend $10 of their weekly food budget on locally produced food, while taking part in new activities. “Eating well andChicken producers will face on-farm audits under new Animal Care Program
Officials say the Animal Care Program meets consumers’ demand for increased accountability to ensure livestock are properly cared for
Chicken producers in Manitoba are about to see more comprehensive audits of their farms as the result of a nationwide Animal Care Program. But for most chicken producers, the program won’t change how they raise their birds. “We’ve been managing the animal care on an informal basis up until now,” said Jake Wiebe, chairman ofCross-Canada tractor pull
Little house on the trailer: Couple travels across the nation to document farmers’ stories and speak to city dwellers about rural issues
A crowd is forming in the downtown Winnipeg parking lot, but it can’t obscure what has sparked the interest — a small red tractor pulling a tiny farmhouse. For more than a year that tiny farmhouse — veranda included — has been home to John Varty and his fiancée Molly Daley. The couple is drivingStanding water can lead to drowned bees
Hot weather might be slowing some Manitobans down, but soaring temperatures have kept leafcutter bees flying high. “Leafcutter bees like the hot weather, more so than honeybees,” said David Ostermann, a pollination expert with Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives. “Honeybees, if it gets too hot, will shut down, but leafcutters tend to keep going,”
Yellow-flowered legume turning heads and attracting interest in Manitoba
Birdsfoot trefoil is a challenge to grow and harvest, but the perennial can prevent bloating in grazers
From a distance it might just seem like another field of yellow canola, but get up close and you will see something that looks quite different. Birdsfoot trefoil, although not widely grown for seed in Manitoba, is a yellow-flowered legume offering benefits to pasture-grazed animals. A new field of the picturesque seed crop was oneRabbit co-op formed to boost supplies
Rabbit Producers Co-op Ltd. was formed at a meeting in late May, spearheaded by Luc Laflamme and his wife Linda Filteau, owners of Ecuries Paulyphipas Ranch. “We had a meeting where about 56 people came out; there was a lot of interest,” said Laflamme, adding the new co-op will stretch across Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta.
Are you ready to give up your WeedEx?
The provincial government wants public input before deciding whether to ban cosmetic pesticide use in Manitoba. Although pesticides used in agriculture — including insecticides, herbicides and fungicides — aren’t included in consultations, a possible ban on cosmetic pesticides would still have repercussions for farmers, said Doug Chorney, president of Keystone Agricultural Producers. “We need to
Getting into the whey: A new cheese maker sets up shop
Ask Pedro Campayo where he keeps his cheese recipes and he’ll point to his father, Jose Campayo. “He is the expert, he knows cheeses,” he says. Pedro Campayo comes from a cheese-making family who split their time between Spain and Venezuela before moving to Canada about a decade ago. Now the new Canadian citizen has
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
