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Beef products at a Japanese market.
Beef cattle, Hogs, Markets, Opinion

Editorial: Customers, not competitors, come first

By
Is there anyone out there who thinks it’s a good thing for Canadian agricultural representatives to join with their competition from other countries to criticize their best customers? The answer is almost certainly no, but on the other hand we didn’t hear any objections when the Canadian Pork Council did exactly that earlier this month.
Doug Chorney
Crops, Opinion

Five years lost as farmers wait for better default protection on grain sales

Leaving feed mills exempt from coverage under existing licensing and bonding leaves farmers vulnerable to losses

By
In 2009, western Canadian farm groups submitted a report to the Honourable Gerry Ritz, minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, outlining options for a program that would provide security to producers when grain buyers defaulted on payments. The main options were fund-based, insurance-based or bond-based programs. It was not that there wasn’t already a form
The image in question that mistakenly referred to these threshermen as "shoveling hay" instead of "pitching sheaves." Our apologies for the error.
Opinion

Editorial: Hay there!

Telling your stories in the big, broad world of agriculture

By
Several readers called in about our reference last week to “shovelling hay” into a threshing machine in our front-page cutline. The general consensus was as a farm paper, we should know better. And we do, most of the time. Of course, you don’t shovel hay into a threshing machine. You pitch in the sheaves. However,
Don Cruikshanks, manager of the Deerwood Soil and Water Management Association, at a unique research site in the Pembina Hills where two watersheds meet. The location allows researchers to do comparative analysis of farm management practices related to water and nutrient management.  Photo: Laura Rance
News, Opinion

Agriculture’s role in nutrient loss

Ultimately, storing water on the land isn’t just about flood control, it’s about capitalizing on available nutrients as well

By
Checking the news feeds across my conservation agriculture news, I see a common thread. Increased nutrient loads at Lake Erie, Chesapeake Bay, the ever-present “dead zone” of the Gulf of Mexico and calls for more action on the state of Lake Winnipeg. The human contributions are relatively constant, albeit constantly increasing, so when things go
Editorial: The waiting game
Crops, Opinion

Editorial: The waiting game

Support is greatly needed for farmers affected by flooding, but what will it be and when?

By
“May the odds be forever in your favour” is a memorable quote from the The Hunger Games, a popular book trilogy later made into movies. Although it is voiced as a cheery sendoff into competition, the irony is that the child protagonists face unspeakably cruel odds, pitted against one another in a fight-to-the-finish match from
Manitoba's potato industry faces a fundamental shift in demand for french fries.
Opinion

Editorial: A growth strategy

A strategy for Manitoba's processing sector must focus on needs of all players

By
Researchers with the Rural Development Institute, which is affiliated with Brandon University, recently set out to answer a seemingly simple question: how big might the Manitoba food processing and beverage industry be in 2020? The answer they came up with suggests a better question might have been — how small? After crunching the numbers and
Cattle on pasture in Argentina.  Photo: Laureano Gherardi
Beef cattle, Forages, Livestock, Opinion

Sometimes cattle don’t displace trees — the trees displace cattle

New non-cattle-ranching owners of U.S. rangeland are one reason for brush encroachment

By
Half of the Earth’s land mass is made up of rangelands, which include grasslands and savannas, yet they are being transformed at an alarming rate. Woody plants, such as trees and shrubs, are moving in and taking over, leading to a loss of critical habitat and causing a drastic change in the ability of ecosystems
Editorial: Trends and anomalies
Cereals, Oilseeds, Opinion

Editorial: Trends and anomalies

By
It’s easy to get a little giddy when things go much better than expected. For example, take last year’s bin buster of a crop. By any measure, it was an astounding production feat. Western Canadian farmers shattered all previous records on most major crops, growing a whopping 76 million tonnes, 50 per cent higher than
New project aims to put soil at scientific forefront
Opinion

New project aims to put soil at scientific forefront

Soil health not a new topic, but it’s been taken for granted

The U.S. National Farm Foundation and The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation have launched a new website with a strategic plan for its Soil Renaissance Project launched on World Soil Day on 2013. When the average person inventories humanity’s most precious resources, soil rarely makes the list. Yet without soil there is no agriculture, no food
photo: lorraine stevenson
Cereals, Opinion

Puttin’ on the Ritz: are the railways next?

Gerry Ritz won the wheat board battle, now it’s time for a new challenge

By
Gerry Ritz slew the Canadian Wheat Board, but can he rein in the railways? If anyone can, it’s Canada’s 33rd minister of agriculture. It won’t be easy, but neither was ending the wheat board’s 69-year-old monopoly. Ritz had help. Key was Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who had a deep disdain for the board and made

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