Environmental issues Archives - Page 16 of 30

Clayton Robins opened his farm for a tour in mid-August to explain the benefits of his high-energy forage grazing system.

Putting grazing theory into practice

Clayton Robins suggests a grazing system of high-energy  forage can hone the best gains while regenerating pastures

By Jennifer Paige September 22, 2015

Following years of research and the publication of a Nuffield study, Clayton Robins is now seeing the results of implementing a high-energy forage system on his own farm. “The greatest hurdle to the forage-fed beef enterprise lies in the difficulty in providing an adequate level of diet energy, especially in the form of a low-cost

Photo taken on July 28, 2015 from NASA’s Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 showing algal blooms on Lake Erie.

Comment

Going against the flow on water quality issues

Strong leadership is needed to address problem of deteriorating water quality

By Alan Guebert August 5, 2015

As summer heats up so too will agriculture’s ongoing water quality problems. On July 10, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced that Lake Erie’s algal bloom will be “more severe in 2015” due to “historic rains in June.” On a scale of 1 to 10, forecasts NOAA, this year’s bloom will be 8.7,

Neal Gutterson (r), head of biotech for DuPont Pioneer says new tools are speeding up the crop improvement process.

Cereals, Crops, Oilseeds

Corn and soybeans headed north and west

DuPont Pioneer is among a number of companies that see huge  growth potential on the western Prairies

By Laura Rance-Unger July 30, 2015

Earlier-maturing varieties of corn and soybeans rolling out across the Canadian Prairies will provide new cash crop options and contribute to more sustainable rotations, a senior official with DuPont Pioneer said here last week. While it is widely acknowledged that farmers are squeezing their canola rotations too tightly, setting the stage for a rise in

Crops, News

Balance needed in agri-food research in Canada

Agri research in Canada is hamstrung by a shortage of financial and human resources

By Alex Binkley July 28, 2015

The pursuit of basic science in agriculture and agri-food has been squeezed out of federal priorities in recent years, speakers told an Agriculture Institute of Canada conference. “Funding remains a challenge for us,” Robert Gordon, dean of the Ontario Agriculture College (OAC), told the delegates to the AIC conference, which was crafting a research policy

Crops, Opinion

Editorial: The green world’s breadbasket?

By Laura Rance-Unger July 13, 2015

Jeff Rubin, the former chief economist for CIBC World Markets turned bestselling author, knows all about adaptation. His first book, Why Your World Is About To Get A Whole Lot Smaller grabbed international attention with predictions that world oil prices would climb to more than $200 a barrel by 2012, forcing a rethink of almost

Local news

New centre for climate risk reduction on the Prairies

The centre will focus on building  community resilience

By Manitoba Co-operator Staff July 7, 2015

The University of Winnipeg and the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) are forming a centre to identify risks and build community resilience to climate change. The Centre for Climate Risk Reduction on the Prairies will be a network offering research, advice and policy development to governments, businesses and community members on the pressing and

Crops, Opinion

Editorial: Agri-resilience is farmers’ best defence for managing risk

By Laura Rance-Unger July 6, 2015

No one understands risk preparedness and management better than an insurance company. The iconic insurance giant Lloyd’s laid out a stark scenario recently in a report about the potential for weather-related disasters to undermine the entire global food system. The 327-year-old insurance firm says it wouldn’t take much — just three catastrophic weather events hitting

Opinion

Editorial: Canada’s GHG stance tarnishes our brand

By John Morriss June 29, 2015

Things aren’t going too well in the international trade agreement department. At the World Trade Organization (WTO) round, which has been dragging along since 1991, it’s come to the point where the director general is actually being honest about its prospects. “Taking an overview of all of these consultations it is hard to see a

A farm employee pulls out cornstalks on an 18-hectare operation owned by a retired educator near Livingstone. hotos: Shannon VanRaes

Cereals, International news

A mix of pragmatism and fear keeps GMOs out of Zambia

While the debate over GMO labelling continues in North America, Zambians take it for granted that they aren’t consuming products made with genetically modified ingredients

By Shannon VanRaes June 26, 2015

In Zambia, it’s practically everywhere. Maize is in tiny garden plots, on small farms, huge estates, in markets and on dinner plates. Since its introduction to Africa by the Portuguese in the 16th century, maize has become the main staple crop in this region. Two megalithic-size cobs even flank the entrance to the Zambia National

Beef cattle, Livestock

Health Canada reviews water quality impact of popular growth promoter

Manitoba Beef Producers says the environmental benefits of growth hormones  in cattle production outweigh the risks

By Shannon VanRaes June 23, 2015

More research has emerged suggesting that growth promoters used in the cattle-feeding business may persist in the environment longer than previously thought. Researchers at Indiana University’s Bloomington School of Public and Environmental Affairs found that while the synthetic testosterone known as trenbolone acetate or TBA breaks down in sunlight, darkness allows it to revert back

Daily Network News

Huge crops in South America says analyst

U.S. livestock: ‘Cattle on feed’ report supports prices

U.S. grains: Wheat trades near contract lows under ample global supply

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