News & Farming Articles - Manitoba Co-operator

Food bills will rise in 2018

Weather conditions and a switch to convenience foods will drive the trend

By Manitoba Co-operator Staff January 9, 2018

The average Canadian family of four will be paying $348 more to feed themselves in 2018, with total expenditures pegged to rise to $11,948. That’s according to the eighth annual Canada’s Food Price Report jointly released Dec. 13 by Dalhousie University and the University of Guelph. “Canadians want to know what will impact the prices

Livestock, News, Other

Clock is ticking on electronic monitoring for transport trucks

Trucks carrying agricultural shipments into the U.S. will have a tighter leash on hours-of-service rules this year, and Canada isn’t far behind

By Alexis Stockford January 9, 2018

Old-fashioned transport truck log books are becoming a thing of the past, and agricultural haulers are getting ready for the change. Both the U.S. and Canada hope to tighten compliance on how long drivers are on the road by switching out paper logs for mandatory electronic logging devices. “Driver fatigue is recognized in Canada and

After a barnburner of a 40th anniversary show last year, Ag Days is going to be focusing on young farmers for 2018.

Local news, Other

Forty… plus one

Manitoba Ag Days rolls into Year 41 with a celebration of young farmers

By Duncan Morrison January 8, 2018

You’ve turned the Big 4-0, you’ve had the big celebratory splash with all your besties and it was one heck of a party… so… now what? Well, if you’re the organizing crew at the 2018 Manitoba Ag Days, you get right back in the saddle and build off your very successful 40th Manitoba Ag Days

Paul and Larissa Koshel spend their winters feeding birds and summers operating their market garden and saskatoon U-pick on their 125-acre farm purchased five years ago. It’s a good place to raise their three daughters, Ella, 10, Rhea, nine, and Kira, seven, says the couple. Paul’s father, Harry, 91, also lives with the family.

Local news

Neepawa couple committed to prairie rehabilitation

Paul and Larissa Koshel are the Whitemud Watershed Conservation District’s 2017 Conservation Award winners for their work restoring a small plot of native prairie plus a three-acre wetland

By Lorraine Stevenson January 8, 2018

When a small farm came up for sale east of town in 2012 Paul and Larissa Koshel jumped at the chance to buy it. The couple was living in the town of Neepawa at the time, having moved down from The Pas in 2006 for Paul’s job as a school teacher at Gladstone and Larrisa’s

Don Campbell relays the peaks and valleys he had to navigate while starting up an emerging aerial application company using drones. Campbell was one of several speakers during a precision agriculture workshop in Southport.

Crops, Local news

Precision agriculture takes to wing at Southport

Precision agriculture has both sky-high potential and some very down-to-earth obstacles

By Alexis Stockford January 8, 2018

When it comes to precision agriculture, there is no such thing as too much quality data — assuming you have the software and internet connection to process it. Southport hosted a precision ag discussion and drew farm consultants, service providers and producers Dec. 12 for its second workshop. “It’s gone from satellite, really huge zones,

Local news, Machinery

Is it time to revisit ISO?

By Alexis Stockford January 8, 2018

Different equipment brands work together better in Europe than in North America, according to one presenter at Southport’s second precision agriculture workshop Dec. 12. Jeff Ziegler of precision ag firm Trimble says North America is years behind Europe in adopting ISO international standards on equipment compatibility. Those standards (commonly referred to as ISOBUS) were rolled

A photo taken by a drone of lake 227 at IISD Experimental Lakes Area where the experiment on eutrophication has been taking place since 1969.

Did you know?, News, Other

Nitrogen reduction not the path

Reducing how much nitrogen enters a lake has little impact on algal blooms, IISD researchers say

By Manitoba Co-operator Staff January 8, 2018

If you take the nitrogen out of the equation for lake algal blooms it turns out you really haven’t changed things at all. According to researchers at the Experimental Lakes Area, operated by Winnipeg’s International Institute for Sustainable Development, that’s because many of the algae responsible for the harmful blooms can turn around and fix

Equipment dealers pitch to potential new customers during the 2017 Hog Days in Brandon Dec. 14.

Hogs, Local news

Hog Days celebrated in Brandon

Dec. 14 marked the return of Manitoba’s Hog and Livestock Days, a biennial show highlighting the pork sector

By Alexis Stockford January 5, 2018

It was all about the pigs in Brandon. Manitoba’s Hog and Livestock Days, more commonly known as Hog Days, returned to the Keystone Centre Dec. 14. The biennial show was last held in 2015. The pork-specific trade show was up about 25 exhibitors, bringing participation up to 135 booths. “In two years, a lot of

Hogs, News

Pork sector mixed victories and challenges in 2017

Policy changes positive war with the worst PEDv outbreak on record and renewed criticism from Hog Watch as pork producers look back on 2017

By Alexis Stockford January 5, 2018

Manitoba’s pork sector has racked up victories on paper, but challenges on the ground during 2017. In perhaps one of the biggest wins for the industry, 2017 ended the freeze on new barns, something industry has fought for since a rule requiring anaerobic digesters in new barns was first introduced in 2006 and expanded province-wide

Robb Fraley is the executive vice-president and chief technology officer for Monsanto Co.

Crops, News

Explosion of innovation coming to the farm

The chief technology officer for Monsanto Co. says the interface between data and biology will be a powerful tool

By Laura Rance-Unger January 5, 2018

There is an explosion of innovation coming to the farm as a new age of sensors and satellite imagery intersects with the world’s oldest industry, the executive vice-president and chief technology office for Monsanto Co. says. Robb Fraley, who was in Calgary recently to address the GrowCanada Conference, said in an interview that although agriculture

Daily Network News

Moroccan fertilizer maker OCP expects output to drop 30 per cent in Q2, sources say

Feed Grain Weekly: Demand rises despite war uncertainty

How farmers can manage stress, anxiety during spring seeding

News