Manitoba’s Small Fruit Crop Itching For Warm Weather

“If we got good heat, the plants would just explode.” – ANTHONY MINTENKO, MAFRI Manitoba’s small fruit growers appear to have dodged the late-spring frost, but now face the prospect of a delayed picking season. A cool, wet spring has put berry crops at least two weeks behind in their normal development. But that was

Gardening With Hydrangeas

Easy to grow and care for, they’re not troubled by pests or diseases and their blooms dry well. If I had to choose my favourite flowering shrub, hydrangeas would top the list. Their finest features are their attractive, fragrant, long-blooming flowers that come into bloom in midsummer and continue to do so for weeks. Easy


Has ethanol’s boost to corn prices run its course?

Recent news stories have been flush with reports about developments in cellulosic ethanol and other biofuels production. Maybe these reports help provide an understanding of why Informa Economics recently forecast corn prices below $3 with wheat prices below $4 and soybeans under $7. Let’s look at the biofuels news first and then see what implications

Sunflowers average in 2008

Manitoba farmers harvested a generally average sunflower crop in 2008, despite ongoing disease and insect problems. Producers reaped an average 1,480 pounds per acre of confectionery and oil-type sunflowers from 182,000 planted acres, according to provincial crop insurance figures. That compared favourably with the long-term four-year average yield of 1,460 pounds per acre from an

USDA supports new biofuels

Developers can apply for $320 million in loan guarantees to build plants that produce new-generation biofuels, the U. S. Agriculture Department said Nov. 19, with an eye to bringing the fuels to market. The loan guarantee program, created by the new U. S. farm law, is intended to speed commercial production of advanced biofuels. Corn


Corn ethanol falls out of favour

Corn-based ethanol is yesterday’s news for venture capitalists who, these days, are betting on everything from wood chips and algae to turkey guts and trash as potential sources of next-generation biofuels. Corn ethanol caught the imagination of U. S. policy-makers as a way to fix multiple problems: rising oil prices, dependence on foreign oil and