Kristen Phillips, general manager of the show, told Glacier FarmMedia the show team is again looking forward to hosting a large contingent of exhibitors and show patrons.

“We are so excited,” she said. “We know that our exhibitors, staff and volunteers have put everything they have into making the show a success.”

The event typically attracts more than 600 exhibitors and 30,000 attendees during its mid-January run of three days.

One long-time exhibitor making a return to the event is Winnipeg-based tractor and farm equipment manufacturer Versatile.

Farrah Wilson, the firm’s head of marketing, said Ag Days is always a highlight for the company.

“It’s a great event, especially for us as a Manitoba-based Canadian manufacturer,” she said. “It’s been a good show for us, and we’re really looking forward to this year.”

Versatile is celebrating the 60th anniversary of its development of the articulated four-wheel-drive tractor in 2026.

One of the groups helping it mark that milestone is the Manitoba Agricultural Museum, which is at Ag Days for just the second time as an exhibitor in 2026.

Volunteer and former Manitoba Agricultural Museum executive director Elliot Sims says Ag Days gives their group the chance to connect with the farm community directly outside its own events, such as the Threshermen’s Reunion and Stampede.

“We love the opportunity to highlight the history of agriculture, while also connecting to today’s farmers and agricultural industry,” Sims said.

For more coverage of Manitoba Ag Days, visit our landing page for the event.

The post Farmers flood Keystone Centre for Ag Days appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Set around the events of the 2024 Ag in Motion, which takes place every July near Langham, Sask. and is one of the biggest farm shows in Western Canada, the first episode is called “Working Cattle,” and focuses on the cattle producers who attend Ag in Motion and the equipment that is shown at Ag in Motion for the cattle sector.

Rob O’Connor, show director of Ag in Motion, said at the launch that he was very excited to see the first episode of the documentary go live.

“To have something this dedicated to the show out there for people to see, and to listen to the different people who participate at the show and how it affects them, it’s kind of cool,” he said following the premiere.

The first episode features O’Connor both on his ranch and at Ag in Motion, working to make the event run smoothly. It also features Canadian Cattlemen editor Lisa Guenther, Glacier FarmMedia lead of exhibit sales and programming Melonee Ochitwa and many people within the industry.

O’Connor said Ag in Motion is a pinnacle of the agriculture industry, and so it is important to showcase it in this way.

“I think it’s an opportunity for the industry to showcase what’s out there for the people who are investing in that industry and producing the ingredients that go into our food,” he said.

“I just really like the focus on how the different aspects of the livestock industry, whether it’s the manufacturers or the livestock producers, are benefiting from (Ag in Motion). The trade show aspect is about business, but it does more than that. It’s not just creating business, it’s also supporting the lifestyle of those people.”

The episode went live on YouTube Nov. 27 following the launch event. The second episode, focusing on equipment, will be privately launched at the Western Canadian Crop Production show in January, with the third episode to follow in February.

“I’m really excited about how we’re going to probably see the next two episodes evolve into how many more people are affected by the show, and the positive outcomes that it gives to the community and to those people’s businesses,” O’Connor said.

The post Agribition 2024: Western Producer launches documentary at Agribition appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Glacier FarmMedia digital editor Greg Berg takes in the 2024 EIMA International Agricultural and Gardening Machinery Exhibition in Bologna, Italy.

During a press conference the evening of Nov. 5, 2024, before the opening day of the show, officials with FederUnacoma spoke to several challenges in the global agricultural sector such as weak farm equipment sales, labour shortages, how climate change is hurting productivity and how new technologies are one piece of the puzzle to help overcome these challenges.

The post EIMA 2024 opens its doors to the world appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

That was obvious at the Ag in Motion Innovation Awards Monday night, in which a rich crop of innovative agricultural products were judged by a crowd of creators and manufacturers.

“The pace of change has accelerated,” said Richelle Andreas of S3 Group, which was involved in the Innovations Award Program.

“The world looks to Canadian agriculture as the most sustainable and innovative in the world.”

The competition was made up of five categories, each including three contestants. Their innovations ranged from a giant manure bio-gas tank-trailer to a simple plastic calf castration card, from analytical management systems to hand-held leaf-scanning apps.

The innovations generally arose from the eternal creator’s notion that there must be a better way to do this.

“I designed my TestiGrip to help me,” said Jodi Suchoplas of Durban, Man., whose simple plastic castration-aid card won the award in the Livestock category.

The winners were:

• Agronomics: CropScan Ag for its On-Combine Grain Analyzer;
• Business Solutions: Ultimate Yield/The Rack for its Hedgehog fuel price hedging program;
• Environmental Solutions: Lemken Canada with its Equalizer Air Tine Drill for vertical banding;
• Livestock: TestiGrip with its self-named castration aid device;
• Equipment: Advanced Tank Production for its Bio-Gas Manure Tank Trailer.

Ag in Motion’s ten-year anniversary was noted and celebrated by a number of speakers, with the growth of the show lauded as a sign of the strength of the Western Canada agricultural economy.

AIM Manager Rob O’Connor recalled when he and Glacier FarmMedia President Bob Willcox sat together in a car and talked through what AIM could be, before there ever was a show.

O’Connor noted that in its first year, AIM had 200 exhibitors. The next year it had grown to 320. Last year it had 580. This year it has swelled to 607.

Saskatchewan Agriculture Minister David Marit said his province is the hub of a world-renowned ag-tech industry, something AIM highlights.

“It’s not a myth. It’s fact,” said Marit.

The post Ag in Motion Innovation Awards handed out appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Equipment ran up and down the laneways, an impact driver sounded from a nearby display and everywhere you looked, there was activity.

Rob Makowsky, of Bayer, was busy at the lifescience firm’s display, where crop plots waved in the light breeze. Staff buzzed around the tents and plots like bees.

“We’re just getting equipment and displays in place and getting things ready for a great three days,” he said.

Makowsky, a digital account specialist with Bayer, said the show’s become a mainstay of Prairie agriculture since its launch in 2015.

“Everyone just loves the atmosphere of this show,” Makowsky said. “We’re able to meet with people here outdoors, with our crop plots right there to look at.”

Rob O’Connor, show director, was likewise occupied getting things in order prior to the show’s opening on Tuesday.

“The day before a show is always pretty busy and exciting, getting all those last minute details nailed down,” O’Connor said. “But we’ve got a great team and we’re excited to see the show drawing near.”

Organizers say attendee and exhibitor interest has been high this year.

“We’re still awaiting final exhibitor numbers, but we’ll be very close to having a record,” O’Connor said.

In 2023, the show hosted a record-breaking 31,166 guests, and O’Connor is optimistic the figures for this year will be similar, or better.

O’Connor also noted that more than 200 of those visitors would be coming from far-flung locales to see Prairie agricultural first hand.

“We’re very excited about the growing complement of international visitors from around the world, including Australia, Africa and Europe,” he said. “We’re expecting more than 200 international visitors this year. They’re drawn here to gain insight into Western Canadian agiculture and see the region’s world-leading equipment in the field.”

The post Ag in Motion site abuzz on show eve appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

They also saw newborn chicks flopping and flipping a few minutes after cracking their eggs.

Horses clopped down the alleys, hefty-muscled and throwing off anxious-for-the-ring energy.

There was straw, boots, company-branded gear, ropes, helmets, and that unique smell of animals, mini-doughnuts, manure and leather that comes with farm-focused fairs. It’s particularly potent when trapped inside the walls of the Keystone Centre.

All in all, the agricultural world was on fine display.

This event doesn’t have the hardcore commercial feel of Manitoba Ag Days, which happens in the exact same space and features gigantic machines, aggressive sales folk, the strutting of important industry people and an olfactory profile along the lines of rubber, new paint and fresh grease.

The Royal Manitoba Winter Fair isn’t for industry insiders and business. It’s for families and fun.

It is also a more holistic representation of the world that exists outside Winnipeg’s perimeter highway and beyond the sprawling of Western Canada’s other urban centres.

How many Canadians still experience this world? We know that very few people still live and work within agriculture. Small town Canada is shrinking, except for the trickle of ex-urban people who turn villages into suburbs.

It’s a unique world. So many things are ever so slightly different from city realities. The jeans worn by country and city people are famously divergent, but many elements of how people interact, chat, queue-up and react to inadvertent physical collisions are just a little bit different, from a city person’s perspective.

I enjoy noticing this when I go to a farm show, because I’m a city person, but I spend much of my life in the country, on farms, talking with farmers and getting worked-up by agricultural issues.

This year, I took my 14 year old with me to Brandon. Every year, I try to get my three kids to come with me to see the fair, to breathe in those smells, see those animals, walk along manure-enhanced hallways. It’s my belief that this will in some way expand their blinkered urban minds.

I wish more of my neighbours and friends had their kids here. It was such a great event. But how many people outside agriculture actually get to see it?

The post Opinion: Agri-culture embraced at Royal Manitoba Winter Fair appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Glacier FarmMedia — Day one of the 2024 Commodity Classic is in the books and a few interesting themes emerged from the annual gathering of U.S. corn, soybean, wheat and sorghum growers.

U.S. farmers are clearly annoyed about a number of new pesticide regulations.

Growers felt blindsided by a federal district court ruling in Arizona vacating the 2020 registrations for a variety of dicamba products used on 50 million acres of U.S. corn and soybeans.

The ruling meant growers couldn’t use the product for the 2024 growing season.

However, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has since ruled that growers can use existing stocks of the product that were packaged, labeled and shipped prior to the Feb. 6 court ruling.

That is a big relief to the country’s soybean and cotton growers, but they wonder what’s in store for 2025 and beyond.

Farmers are also concerned about the EPA’s response to numerous other court rulings that determined the regulator has continually failed to meet its Endangered Species Act obligations.

Farm groups say the EPA’s proposed Herbicide Strategy, which will bring registrations into compliance with the act, is going to cost them a fortune.

A survey conducted by the American Soybean Association (ASA) indicates 80 percent of producers would not comply with the EPA’s proposal and would face “moderate to extreme” costs to become compliant.

“The proposal would likely require billions of dollars for farmers across the country to implement and could prevent some farmers from using certain herbicides entirely,” the ASA stated in a press release.

A petition it circulated collected 1,500 signatures from growers, applicators and other agricultural stakeholders calling for withdrawal of the proposal.

Soy growers were pleased that the EPA recently announced it has extended the deadline to finalize the strategy by three months to August 30, giving it more time to consider their criticism of the strategy.

Another big topic of conversation at the convention is the 2024 Farm Bill, an omnibus package of legislation that covers everything from school nutrition programs to farm safety nets.

Grower groups are lobbying hard for a bill that “does no harm” to crop insurance programs and sets higher reference prices for crops that will trigger direct payments sooner under today’s falling price environment.

The U.S. Congress is still debating and designing the bill, which was originally supposed to be in place for 2023.

There was plenty of talk about markets at the conference as well.

Al Kluis, with Kluis Commodity Advisors, had good news and bad news for farmers.

The good news is that he thinks corn and soybean futures prices have bottomed out, at least temporarily.

The bad news is that if the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s yield and acreage forecasts for 2024-25 are correct, it doesn’t bode well for prices, especially for corn.

“We could see extremely low prices in the fall,” he said.

The soybean outlook doesn’t look nearly as bad, and he is extremely excited about the long-term future for that crop due to looming demand from the sustainable aviation fuel industry.

PepsiCo and Walmart talked about their US$120 million joint venture to support sustainable agriculture in the U.S. and Canada.

The program aims to accelerate the adoption of regenerative agriculture practices on more than two million acres of farmland in the U.S. and Canada, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by four million tonnes by 2030.

Monitor the pages of The Western Producer and other Glacier FarmMedia publications for full stories on these and other topics from the 2024 Commodity Classic.

––Sean Pratt writes for the Western Producer. 

The post Commodity Classic day one: Farmers concerned about EPA’s herbicide strategy appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

The Provincial Exhibition of Manitoba, which holds the major agro-tourism event in Brandon each year, says straw animal bedding will no longer be used at its events due to the cost of dealing with the used material.

Why it matters: The Royal Manitoba Winter Fair is one of three annual fairs put on by the Provincial Exhibition of Manitoba and draws crowds to its horse shows, livestock spotlights and ag sector outreach.

The cost of waste transportation and waste tipping has risen, the organization said in a Jan. 9 social media post. Future events will have wood shaving and wood chip alternatives on hand, “subject to availability.”

General manager Mark Humphries said exhibitors will be able to purchase bedding materials from the event’s stockpile or source their own shavings or wood chips.

“Straw just turns out to be more bulky … When we actually start to move it out, it gets down to the sheer economics of it,” he said. “We can get more shavings into a tipping load than we can straw.”

Costs are driven by volume rather than weight, he added.

Manure is one of the biggest expenses for the exhibition’s agricultural fairs. At Ag Ex 2023, the victim of an early snowstorm in late October, show co-chair Dallas Johnston expected 120 tandem loads of manure to be hauled out of Brandon’s Keystone Centre.

That fair is the most cattle heavy of the exhibition’s three major events, with 2023 sporting five national or major regional breed shows and about 620 cattle.

The show typically maintains a 60-bale straw stockpile. Another 40 were added at the last minute in 2023 due to snow. The show estimated that it would spend $10,000 on manure hauling and $6,800 on wood chips for the event.

Other financial pressures are also rising. The Keystone Centre has raised the price of hosting events to make its own ends meet, Humphries noted.

The decision to limit bedding materials was not made lightly, “but we’re trying to cut down the expense to the exhibitor.

“If we have to start charging extra per class or per show because of the increased cost of bedding and transportation, I’m sure the exhibitors won’t be too comfortable. This way, we can still keep the entrance fee sensible,” said Humphries, though he acknowledged the policy will mean expense for exhibitors who previously sourced their own straw bedding.

The price to buy wood chips and shavings at the event is not yet known. The exhibition will watch the market and base the charge on what it pays.

“We don’t charge out the shavings to make a profit,” Humphries said. “We sell it actually at a straightforward one-for-one price.”

The exhibition is also trying to avoid raising visitor ticket prices. This will be the third year the organization has held ticket prices level.

“We understand the current climate that everybody’s in,” Humphries said. “The grocery basket price has gone up. The gas price is still very high. Cost of living in general is certainly a lot different than we were before COVID, so we are very conscious of that.”

The post No straw allowed for Royal Manitoba Winter Fair appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Ag Days General Manager Kristen Phillips said it’s always great when those long months of planning come together. “It’s absolutely wonderful to see the show started and running with everybody here.”

However, the weather did throw a couple of wrinkles into the plans.

“We’ve had a couple of speakers that weren’t able to make flights, but we’ve pivoted, and we’ve got a couple of virtual presentations and a couple of video presentations. But other than that, we’re in great shape,” said Phillips.

The speakers who couldn’t make it were Dr. Breanne Tidemann, who was scheduled to do a presentation on integrated weed management on Tuesday morning, and federal Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay.

Breanne Tidemann will now have a virtual presentation, and MacAulay has provided a pre-recorded video of his speech scheduled for Tuesday afternoon.

Phillips credits being able to overcome the weather issues with great relationships and understanding of everyone involved.

“We definitely had our challenges getting people in, but our exhibitors were amazing. Everybody worked together, and people were patient,” she said.

Judging by the crowds lining up at Brandon’s Keystone Centre early on Tuesday, it’s looking like the cold is having little effect on attendance this year.

But Phillips says it would take a lot to keep hardy Manitoba agriculture enthusiasts away from the popular annual show. Certainly, a cold-snap in mid-January is not unexpected, but Phillips

says despite what happens before and after the show, the coldest part o the winter always seems to land during Ag Days.

“It was -5 C last week, and it’s -5 C next week, and it’s -40C for Ag Days,” she said with an eye-roll and a chuckle.

The post Ag Days kicks off appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Farmers are a tech-savvy lot, the farmer board representative notes, and that means they enjoy seeing any new solutions to common farm problems. That has generated plenty of innovative products and entries in the competition, Cousins notes.

“That’s not surprising considering the ag industry is constantly reaching for new heights in efficiency. I think a lot of folks come to the show to see what’s new and great and, with the seven different categories, there’s something for everybody whether you’re into ag equipment or livestock.”

This is year number five for the recently named Innovation Showcase. In past years it was called the Inventor’s Showcase, in which a field of about 14 contestants were narrowed down to a first and second prize.

There were no particular classifications or groupings for inventions on display so, a few years ago, the committee developed seven categories that reflect the different types of farm technology. It opened the field to more than 30 applicants annually.

• Agronomics: Awarded to the company that has developed a new technology that improves crop production, including innovation in genetics, pesticide application (non-mechanical), and the process of producing a crop.
• Animal and Livestock: Awarded to the company that has a new technology that assists in the health and well-being of livestock animals.
• Agriculture Equipment: Awarded to the company that has developed a new equipment concept or technology that assists farmers and agriculture professionals with farming application.
• Agribusiness Services: Awarded to the company that has developed a new technology that assists farmers and agriculture professionals with the management of their farm business and clients.
• Ag Tech: Awarded to the company that has developed a new concept or technology that assists farmers and agriculture professionals with farming applications.
• Farm Safety: Awarded to the company that has developed a new product that assists farmers and agriculture professionals with safety.
• Farm Built Solutions: Awarded to the exhibitor that has developed a concept or technology that assists farmers and agriculture professionals with farming applications. 

For the final category, organizers say they’re looking for grassroot inventions. If a farmer likes to tinker in the shop, garage or yard and has created something useful and progressive, they could be featured at the show. It’s a popular category with farmers and organizers alike.

“This one has always been a favourite of mine,” Cousins says with a laugh. “Maybe it’s the romantic notion of a producer in his shop figuring out something for himself.”

There are two entrants in the farm-built category this year. One is from Triple Pass Welding, called the Meth Head. The other is from Devloo and is a miniature combine dubbed the Canola Crusher.

The Meth Head is a simple mechanism that forces methyl hydrate into trailer air brake lines to keep them from freezing. The Canola Crusher is a small thresher that can take small grain samples to check for maturity.

‘You tote it around in your pickup when you’re looking for the next crop to go harvest,” Cousins said. “It saves you taking a combine 10 miles down the road to check out the condition of a crop.”

The show management team interviews each applicant and the top 32 are selected.

“I really enjoy the interview process, having phone conversations with the people and hearing their excitement while they explain their new item or invention, especially the small startups where the entrants are almost always the labour force and CEO,” said Cousins.

New exhibitors are placed in Barn 4 whenever possible and their booths are marked with an Innovation Showcase teardrop. Although anyone may enter, there is one important qualification. This has to be the first year of release in Canada for that particular product or service.

“To see the new items in real time at the show is likely the most exciting part to me,” Cousins said. “Putting a face to the voice on the other end of the phone line and being able to inspect and touch the innovation to see how it measures up to expectations.”

There are two prize winners in each category, a first and a runner up. First prize is a $1,000 advertising voucher with Glacier Media, the owner of this publication, along with $500 in cash. The runner up wins a $500 advertising voucher with Glacier Media and $250 in cash. Both winners get a mat they can put in front of their booths.

“It’s not so much the prize as it’s the recognition, the exposure that they get and the interaction that they get with real time people in a real time place,” Cousins said.

“It’s going to be an exciting year so I hope people come on out and witness the excitement first hand.”

Here are some of the other entrants in the Innovation Showcase:

Spider Hitch
Donnelly, Alta.
Spider Hitch solves the hassle of hooking up headers behind combines without help. It uses an embodied wirelessly controlled winch to pull the header to the combine and automatically latch on without an additional pin or clip.

Combinesettings.com
Battleford, Sask.
Combinesettings.com allows farmers to connect with peers locally or globally, to share combine settings specific to crop, combine type, equipment, geography and weather. It is the first time ag peer-to-peer information sharing like this has been centralized.

Vantage Ag
Langley, B.C.
The firm’s liquid fertilizers all have a particle size 30 to 40 times bigger than an atom. In a foliar application, producers require only a fraction of the actual nutrient with close to 100 per cent efficiency.

Setter Manufacturing Division
Russell, Man.
The Sprayer Companion comes with an optional programmable monitor and electric on/off valves and is built for fast, efficient and safe loading of chemical. The optional Drylock system eliminates contact with insecticides.

Komb Ag Services
Altona, Man.
Komb’s Mole Plow creates unlined tunnels (mole channels) in the clay subsoil formed by a mole plow. Mole plowing is an economical alternative to drain tile, compatible with existing subsurface drainage, and is efficient in different soils.

The post Innovation Showcase highlights newest products appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.