Coming in second, Provincial Trunk Highway 34 near Austin.

PTH 23, which runs roughly from Hartney in Southwestern Manitoba to La Rochelle in Southeastern Manitoba, is seventh on the list.

PTH 32, near Winkler, rounds out the list at number 10.

First on the list is Winnipeg’s Empress Street.

The list is part of a yearly campaign by CAA Manitoba, which allows people to vote on which road is the worst. CAA said over 2,700 votes were cast for more than 400 roads.

Potholes and crumbling pavement continue to be the most critical issue identified by motorists, followed by traffic congestion.

Earlier this year, both the federal and provincial governments announced that a combined total of approximately $300 million will be spent to improve 350 kilometres of the highway network across Manitoba.

The City of Winnipeg recently announced that one-time federal gas tax funding will be spent on road repairs, road safety initiatives and the promotion of active transportation.

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It’s all part of its annual spring campaign — coinciding with pothole season — to highlight the state of Manitoba’s transportation infrastructure.

“A number of the worst roads from past years have been repaired, which tells us our efforts to keep road conditions top of mind for government are working,” said CAA Manitoba president Mike Mager in a news release.

“But as our communities grow, our commuting choices can and will change. Prioritizing connectivity for commuters is key, and implementing safe, eco-friendly infrastructure like transit and cycling lanes will ultimately help reduce wear and tear on our infrastructure and taxpayers’ pocketbooks.”

Last week representatives from Bike Winnipeg and the Manitoba Association of Senior Centres joined with CAA Manitoba to encourage all road users to focus their Worst Roads campaign votes on the safety and infrastructure challenges they face on their commute.

Connie Newman, executive director of the Manitoba Association of Senior Centres, said the need for smooth transportation corridors is especially important to older people and people with mobility challenges.

“Our population is aging, and older Manitobans are relying on transit more than ever before. We encourage everyone who walks and uses transit to get around to cast a vote for the section of the street and sidewalk that gives them grief,” Newman said.

Mark Cohoe, executive director of Bike Winnipeg said many roads and intersections remain “unfriendly” to people on foot or bike.

“That’s where CAA’s Worst Roads campaign comes in – cyclists can have their voice heard on infrastructure safety by nominating the roads and rides that trouble them.”

Voting runs until midnight on April 18, 2018. Manitobans can nominate their Worst Road online at caamanitoba.com/worstroads and use the prompts to select their worst road, sidewalk or bike corridor.

Voters can identify themselves as pedestrians, cyclists, or drivers and pinpoint a particular stretch of the street for safety reasons, congestion and crumbling infrastructure.

The results will be made public in April and forwarded to government leaders for review.

Tweeting about the campaign? Tag @CAAManitoba and include the hashtag #MBWorstRoads.

The post Sidewalks a mess? Cycling scary? CAA wants to know appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

One of Manitoba’s long-standing seedstock producers, Edgerton was presented with a 50-year Canadian Angus Association Heritage Award June 10 in Brandon. Kuno Freitag of Alameda, Sask., was also recognized.

“It’s an honour,” Edgerton said. “It takes a lot of work for 50 years and I’ve seen the change in the Angus breed, from the small to the medium to the horsey ones and then back and we’re back in the middle. We have better-quality cattle (now) actually.”

Edgerton’s history with the breed dates back to 1967, when the then 21-year-old purchased four breeding females. It was the start of what would one day be Botany Angus.

By the early ’70s, Edgerton was expanding and adding technology. In 1972, he added 25 females to his herd. Artificial insemination was introduced, eventually putting Botany Angus onto the radar of the Douglas Manitoba Bull Test Station in 1979. By the time the first bull set foot in Douglas, Edgerton claimed 90 homebred registered animals.

By 1980, Edgerton was starting to turn his gaze overseas. Bulls were shipped to Mexico and the United States and he continued to sell internationally for decades.

Edgerton eventually spent six years on the Manitoba Angus Association board, including a two-year term as president. Likewise, his name became well associated with the Douglas test station, and he spent nine years as a board director of that facility.

Edgerton has outlasted many of his original compatriots in the provincial Angus association. He has seen past presidents and executives retire, some of whom have now passed away, while Edgerton himself remains at least nominally in the game.

Today, Edgerton still runs a 20-head herd with Ryan Shearer of Wawanesa, despite the same health problems that led him to sell his main herd in 2001. He mostly leaves physical labour for his partner, he said, but takes a leading role in registration and administration.

Building on past experience with artificial insemination, Edgerton and Shearer opted for yet more advanced technology after establishing the new elite herd. The pair carefully chose expensive, high-end females, which then became reciprocals for transplanted embryos. Transplanting embryos sparked a new aspect to Edgerton’s experience, but the high fertility of the breed soon created a different problem. They had more calves than the semi-retired Edgerton wanted.

In reaction, the partners began selling their own embryos overseas, finding markets in Mexico, Scotland and Finland before trade regulations eventually became prohibitive. Today, Edgerton and Shearer no longer deal internationally, but maintain their elite herd.

“It’s been a good time and the Angus breed is a good breed to be in,” Edgerton said.

Just starting out

Two of 2017’s Canadian Angus Association junior awards also went to Manitobans.

Austen Anderson of Swan River, Man., was named this year’s Outstanding Young Angus Breeder. The award is given to an association member between 22 and 30 years old, “who has demonstrated a desire to stay involved in the Angus business for years to come based on their involvement within the breed up to this point in his or her career.”

Anderson claimed both the title and the $3,500 cash prize.

“Our family’s gone through a lot of sacrifice and struggles over the years and it just feels incredibly validating to be named an outstanding young breeder,” he said. “It’s a real impressive group of alumni that I’ll be joining.”

Anderson’s family has farmed in the Swan River Valley since the late 1800s and, in 2011, was recognized by the CAA for 75 years in the Angus business.

In 1988, Anderson said, his family broke off from the century farm to start their own operation.

There were “little to no assets,” when the family struck out on its own, Anderson said, recalling years of tight margins and painstaking brand building.

The 2003 BSE crisis didn’t help. Like most in the beef sector, the Andersons were rocked by suddenly plummeting beef prices.

“We’ve done everything, worked off the farm and built Anderson Cattle Company from a bare sand quarter to one of the finest purebred operations in Manitoba and Western Canada,” Anderson said.

Today, the farm runs about 200 red and black Angus and sells about 50 bulls annually during its main spring sale.

June 10 was not the first time Anderson has been recognized by the national association. In 2011, Anderson was the voice of young breeders across Canada, serving a one-year term as the Robert C. McHaffie Junior Ambassador.

His most recent award is a bridge between junior and senior breeders and encourages youth to stay connected to the association after they age out of the junior programs, Anderson said.

“These are people who are maybe not operating their own farms yet. They’re in succession stages with their parents, so this gives them an opportunity to be recognized as being leaders within the breed,” he said.

Devon Donald, this year’s Junior Angus Stockman of the Year, is one of the breeders just starting out.

Like Anderson, Donald started young.

The breeder from Rossendale, Man., began working with cattle as a child. In 2006, he bought three heifers with the intention to build his own herd and eventually founded Diamond D Ranch.

Those first three cows have since bloomed into 75 head of purebred black Angus, a number Donald hopes will expand to over 100 in coming years. In the long term, he said, he would like to see 200-300 head roaming his land.

Part of that expansion will begin with his title as Junior Angus Stockman of the Year, an occurrence Donald described as, “incredible.”

“I’m speechless actually,” he said. “I’ve always wanted to win this award.”

Besides gaining exposure for his young operation, Donald plans to spend his prize money on another breeding female this fall.

“It’ll really help my herd grow in numbers and performance, so I’m really looking forward to that,” he said.

All three awards were announced as part of the Can­adian Angus Association national convention June 8-11.

The post Past greats, future leaders honoured at CAA awards appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Two sections of Provincial Hwy. 13 intersecting his town — dubbed Main Street South and Main Street North — made the top 10 of CAA’s fifth annual worst roads campaign last week.

“The whole road is a mess,” said Mitchell. “It’s to the point where we honestly feel it’s a danger. If you watch vehicles going down those roads, especially the trucks, they’re moving around on the road trying to miss the potholes.”

CAA holds the yearly campaign each spring to call attention to the poor state of Manitoba’s roads, asking citizens to nominate and vote for roads with the most potholes and crumbling pavement and other hazardous conditions.

More than 660 roads were nominated in Manitoba, and for the first time in the campaign’s history, highways in Carman, Brookdale, Goodlands, Boissevain and Gillam bumped long-standing Winnipeg streets from the list, according to the CAA. It was a tight race between the top two rural roads, with Manitoba 353 at Brookdale running a close second.

More than 8,800 votes were cast during the four-week campaign.

“This has been a record year for Worst Roads, and the campaign clearly illustrates that Manitobans believe streets all over the province need some TLC: tender loving construction,” Mike Mager, president and CEO of CAA Manitoba said in a news release.

Mitchell said it’s frustrating for local leaders because all town council can do is keep setting funds aside in its own budget as its share of the repairs for whenever the province gets around to it.

The campaign is an annual opportunity for citizens to raise the alarm about road conditions but this year’s CAA event is well timed just ahead of a provincial election. This year’s CAA’s worst road declarations send a strong signal to the province just how bad roads have become in many rural areas, Mitchell said. At the end of the Worst Roads campaign, reports of roads voted on are distributed to government leaders for review.

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