Business Risk Management

The importance of planning to be safe on the farm can ever be overemphasized in agriculture. Rural culture is such that for far too long farm families have lived a risky lifestyle, accepting and even celebrating obsessive work habits in the name of staying one step ahead of the weather, saving money or earning more.

Eco-Farming Can Double Food Output By Poor

Many farmers in developing nat ions can double food production within a decade by shifting to ecological agriculture from use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, a UN report showed March 8. Insect-trapping plants in Kenya and Bangladesh’s use of ducks to eat weeds in rice paddies are among examples of steps taken to increase food


U.K. Organic Sales Stable After Recession Fall

Sales of organic products in Britain has stabilized after a recession-driven decline which was particularly severe in the meat sector, the incoming director of the Soil Association said on Feb. 9. “Last year we saw a drop (in demand), particularly in some areas. The feeling is very much that it is more stable now and

Fall Garden Cleanup Tips

As gardeners, we never want the gardening season to come to an end. But we must welcome the coming cold months by preparing our gardens for winter. Follow the tips below for a few good basic steps in preparing your beloved garden for the coming chill: Dig up tender bulbs for storage until next year.


Phosphorus Depletion An Ongoing Concern

The excess moisture that has plagued Manitoba’s Interlake forced Bragi Simundsson to cut back on his organic operation last year. “If you can’t cultivate for over a year, you’re pretty much beat trying to be organic,” says Simundsson, who had as many as six quarters of his 2,000-acre mixed grain farm near Arborg certified. Organic

Organic Agriculture Is The Future

Does organic agriculture have a future? For some, such as well-known plant scientist E. Ann Clark, organic is the future. In a paper released earlier this year, the University of Guelph professor joined those who say that the end of cheap oil will mean the end of conventional agriculture as it’s currently practised. “(T)he future


Our “Response Ability”

But can it feed the world? The question routinely arises when the conversation turns to organic agriculture. Conventional wisdom says organic agriculture is a nice niche for those who can afford to pay the higher premiums as compensation for the farmers’ lower yields. But the production system can’t possibly achieve the productivity that will be

Organic At A Crossroads

n the late 1990s, John Finnie was a Kenton-area conventional zero-till farmer concerned this was becoming too expensive a way to farm to be sustainable. He began to eye an organic system. Today the Finnies’ have 1,000 acres of cropland certified organic and raise certified bison meat. The challenges faced on their farm are trying


Organic Farmers Look For Workable Solutions

It’s National Organic Week Oct. 11 to 16 in Canada, a week when the industry celebrates its continued growth as an industry. So where does Manitoba fit into the national picture? Organic farmers represent just two per cent of total farms in this province, or an estimated 300 certified farms covering about 100,000 acres. But

Variable-Rate Hog Manure Still Needs Work – for Sep. 2, 2010

Precision agr icul ture isn’t ready for natural fertilizer. That’s the finding of a recently completed study by Nivervillebased Agra-Gold Consulting researcher Scott Dick, who along with Farmer’s Edge Precision Consulting, tested whether the cutting-edge technology could work with a drag-hose application system to apply hog manure. In the MRAC and Manitoba Pork Council-funded study