Plant breeder and researcher Doug Cattani was recently recognized by the province 
for innovation in sustainability.

Kernza plant breeder recognized

Faces of Ag: Doug Cattani has spent his career working on perennial grasses

And to think, he could have been an accountant. Plant breeder and researcher Doug Cattani received provincial recognition in October for his work in developing perennial grains. Since 2010, Cattani has worked with Kernza, the trade name for organically produced intermediate wheatgrass, which is being developed for grain production. As a perennial grain, Kernza causes

Together, Will and Jen grow loads of harvested beets from his and wife Jen’s organic vegetable CSA garden.

Online food fight grows into ag advocacy for local producer

Faces of Ag: Will Bergmann uses social media, his restaurant and relationship building to tell the story of agriculture to those who most need to hear

It started with fighting people on Facebook. Will Bergmann was figuring out where life would go. He’d gone to school for education, but he wanted to return to the land his family had farmed for generations. In the miasma of fights over GMOs and the evils of Monsanto, Will saw the potential in the platform


Digvir Jayas.

Farming, poetry and math carved path for agricultural researcher

Faces of Ag: Award-winning grain preservation researcher Digvir Jayas’s fierce work ethic and mentorship abilities began under his grandfather’s tutelage on a farm in India

As a boy, Digvir Jayas got up early. His grandfather got up at 4 a.m., got ready for work, and woke him up to go to their farm in the Indian countryside. It was a small farm by Canadian standards. They raised cattle and water buffalo and planted two to three rotations of crops per

Harley Siemens at his farm site near Rosenort.

Young egg farmer an ambassador for agriculture

Faces of Ag: Harley Siemens invites people into his free-run facility so 
they can see how his hens live, and how they produce the eggs they eat


Harley Siemens is proud of his farm. It’s evident in the way he shows off every detail on a tour through the sparkling-clean layer barns, something he’s done many times. There’s good reason for that. The Siemens’ two free-run aviary barns, near Rosenort, were his brainchild. Before they broke ground in 2017, Harley crisscrossed the


Sam Connery-Nichol in one of her strawberry fields near Portage.

Family is everything for young vegetable farmer

Faces of Ag: Since taking over the farm, Sam Connery-Nichol’s family has expanded to include her staff and 40 to 60 temporary foreign workers

Sam Connery-Nichol’s truck is a grey Chevy Silverado with over 600,000 kilometres on it and rust around the wheel wells. She could probably get a new vehicle — one that’s easier to park in town — but she refuses to let this one go. It was her dad’s truck. Jeff Connery died in 2012 shortly

Clare (left) and Jill (right) Martens farm cattle and seed crops with their dad and uncle near Boissevain.

Sister pair empowered by family to be women in ag

Faces of Ag: Sisters Jill and Clare Martens are tackling farm management and what it means to be a woman farmer in 2019

There’s a sign in one of the Martens family’s farm buildings that says “Jacob Martens and Sons.” “It’s kind of like an icon in my mind of what has changed in one generation,” said Clare Martens, 25. “Now it could say ‘Ben Martens and Daughters.’” Clare and sister Jill, 22, farm alongside their dad and


Gould’s father Donald Gould, 86, with grandkids.

Farm family ‘the last thread hold’ of First Nation agriculture

Faces of Ag: BSE and flooding nearly wiped out his family 
farm, but Derrick Gould won’t let their way of life die

Derrick Gould’s farm is one of two left in his community. “We’re the last thread hold of the First Nation agriculture, farming way of life,” Gould told the Manitoba Co-operator. Forty years ago, Gould’s community of Pinaymootang (Fairford) First Nation was home to more than 30 farmers. As the community’s population grew, available farmland diminished,

Amy Johnson calls her 1976 Cessna AG Truck spray plane her baby. She’s the only one who gets to fly it.

Young aerial applicator pilots her dreams

For two months of the year, Amy Johnson flies a crop duster and for 10 she flies MedEvac planes

Amy Johnson loves an early morning — cool, calm, no one around and perfect for flying. “You’re just kind of in your own little bubble in the plane,” said Amy, 23. “You really feel like it’s just an extension of your body and the wings are your own wings… I get that feeling in this


“I would love to see this farm continue on into the future, into the next generation. I would say that’s my goal.” – Fiona Jochum

Young Manitoba farmer right where she wants to be — working beside her dad on the family farm

‘The goal is to farm,' says Fiona Jochum, who farms near St. Francois Xavier

Fiona Jochum has the weight of her first crop on her shoulders, and thus far it’s been a doozy. Flea beetles, cutworms and dry conditions have hampered growth in her fields, but Fiona, 25, doesn’t let it get her down. “Even though these things stress me out, I still love it. I still want to

JoAnne Buth looks back at a carer of change as she enters retirement.

JoAnne Buth: a life in agriculture

Cigi’s newly retired CEO didn’t have a plan, but walked through new doors as they opened

JoAnne Buth is an expert in removing mosquito ovaries. Her favourite insect is the weevil. She’s one of the newest members of the Canadian Agriculture Hall of Fame. And if you keep reading you’ll learn lots more about the recently retired CEO of Cigi — the Canadian International Grains Institute — and her auspicious agricultural