TPP II deal good news for agriculture

FCC’s top agriculture economist says there’s the potential for big benefits, but it will take time

Farm Credit Canada says a new trade deal with Asia is good news for the nation’s farmers. FCC says the new Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) will mean better market access and that’s always good news for agriculture. “We can open up markets more to what we have, especially when we have big competitors

Recent research says fish, like these chinook salmon, may be the better source of omega-3 fatty acids.

Not all omega-3s are created equal

It turns out the source of these healthy fatty acids is important

Fish or flax? That’s the question researchers from the University of Guelph have been trying to answer when looking at the cancer-prevention qualities of various sources of omega-3 fatty acids. David Ma, a professor in the university’s department of human health and nutritional sciences, says so far fish is coming out on top. His work


VIDEO: Boldly spraying where no one’s sprayed before?

VIDEO: Boldly spraying where no one’s sprayed before?

ROGA Drone wants to swoop onto the crop spray market with an autonomous UAV

Started as a company in 2017, ROGA Drone is one of the new players in the UAV market, and Don Campbell believes there’s an untapped market in Western Canada for UAVs to spray insecticide. His flight plan? The Kray drone. The Kray drone is a fixed wing UAV using eight rotors to keep it airborne,

Delegates to the Keystone Agricultural Producers annual general meeting and participating in the Young Farmer’s program had an opportunity to talk in groups about the questions the Becoming A Young Farmer research is posing.

Young farmer research shared with KAP delegates

The Becoming a Young Farmer study began in 2017 asking new entrants about how the next generation sees agriculture

Manitoba stood out in 2016 census data for having the largest proportion of those younger farm operators, as well as the youngest population of farm operators in Canada outside Quebec. But these young agriculturalists now farm a landscape more thinly populated than one their grandparents and even parents experienced. During the 1980s and 1990s, when


Is a soybean-canola rotation worth rolling the dice?

Is a soybean-canola rotation worth rolling the dice?

Most farmers aren’t jumping on a soybean-canola rotation, but explosive growth of soybean acres and their westward spread into canola country have some asking the question

Farmers better study up on the hurdles of a soybean-canola rotation before trying it in the field, Manitoba Agriculture specialists say. Soybeans have been a growing story in Manitoba, rising over the last decade to become one of the province’s main crops with almost 2.3 million acres planted in 2017. Combined with canola, another high-value

Annette Desmarais, Canada Research chair in Human Rights, Social Justice and Food Sovereignty presented findings of a study on farmland tenure patterns in Saskatchewan during the Keystone Agricultural Producers annual general meeting.

Not farming? Pay up

Researcher wants to track land tenure throughout the Prairies

To keep more farmland in the hands of farmers, put a levy on sales of it to those who buy land but don’t plan farming it themselves. That’s a proposal put forward as a resolution at Keystone Agricultural Producers’ annual general meeting and supported by delegates last month. This would be a support to younger


A combination of snow covered in dirt is colloquially known as “snirt” and it’s a common sight around Manitoba this year, including here, east of Winkler.

Erosion lessons learned… and forgotten

The dust-covered snow of this winter suggests there’s a soil erosion 
problem brewing, MSSS speaker says

Disappearing shelterbelts and blackened fields have some wondering if the soil conservation lessons learned during the ‘Dirty ’30s’ dust bowl are being forgotten. “From the edge of Fargo to the edge of Winnipeg I did not see one flake of white snow on my way up yesterday (Jan. 31),” Daryl Ritchison, interim director of the

VIDEO: A return to the Dust Bowl days?

VIDEO: A return to the Dust Bowl days?

Are the soil conservation lessons learned from the Dirty Thirties being forgotten? Manitoba Co-operator reporter Allan Dawson spoke with Jim Tokarchuk of the Soil Conservation Council of Canada and University of Manitoba soil science professor David Lobb about this very issue at the Manitoba Soil Science Society’s meeting on Feb. 1, 2018. Watch for more


Food processors spy shortcomings in CFIA regulatory plan

Food processors spy shortcomings in CFIA regulatory plan

There are five key shortcomings that need to be fixed, food industry reps say

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency thinks it’s on the home stretch of its overhaul of food safety regulations but the food industry says there’s still work to be done. CFIA says the revamp will finally compete the implementation of the Safe Food for Canadians Act passed by the Harper government in 2012 and it’s planning

canola field

Speaker urges a change of pace when chasing maximum yield

Don’t think about what to add, Ag Days speaker says — think about what’s possible and subtract from there

Single changes won’t cut it if producers really want their best possible yield. Jarrett Chambers, president of ATP Nutrition, wants producers to be radical when it comes to testing management tools. “We have to figure out in a grower, what is their maximum yield for their farm and figure out, what is the potential? Where


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