U.S. Senate overhauls Farm Bill, but time running out

washington / reuters / The U.S. Senate has approved sweeping new farm legislation that would cut almost all traditional farm subsidies while expanding a costly crop insurance program. But chances are slim the bill will pass this year. The $498-billion, five-year Farm Bill, passed by a 2-to-1 margin, would compensate growers when revenue from a

Row cropping potatoes may be headed over the hill

While potato growers in other regions have seen bed planting come into fashion over the past few years, it’s very early days here in Manitoba. In fact there’s just one operation in the province using the system, the Berry family, at their Glenboro-area Over and Under the Hill Farms. Chad Berry says this is the


CWB announces more handling agreements, Japan sale

Farmers can now deliver to the wheat board through 120 elevators 
across the West and more grain companies are expected to participate

Things are starting to look up for the Canadian Wheat Board. Last week it announced six more grain companies will handle its grain making it practical for farmers across the West to patronize the board, and it announced a big wheat sale to Japan. Until the new handling agreements were announced June 21 at the

Time to put your potatoes to bed

Those long, arrow-straight rows of carefully hilled potato plants are one of the key features of any potato production region — but in a few years they might be a thing of the past, says a soil scientist from USDA. David Tarkalson, a member of the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service based in Kimberly, Idaho, thinks


Drier weather heats up growing conditions

Weekly Provincial Summary  A return to warm and drier conditions is welcomed by many Manitoba producers.  All crop types, particularly the warm-season crops of grain corn, sunflowers, edible beans and soybeans are benefiting from the recent change in weather.  The favourable weather conditions are also allowing acres impacted by excess moisture to recover. However, there



China’s agricultural future: Adopt developed technologies

China is a grudging importer of corn and pork, preferring instead to increase domestic production 


As the most populous nation on Earth, China has intermittently been seen as the solution to the problem created by the ability of U.S. farmers to produce more than they can sell at a profitable price. Sometimes the discussion is focused on cotton; at other times it is corn or soybeans. Today, it is pork



Cigi appoints three farmers to its board

With farmers paying for part of its funding directly, Cigi says it’s important to get them more involved in governance

Three Prairie farmers have been appointed to the Canadian International Grains Institute’s six-member board, just one of many changes to the institute in the wake of the Canadian Wheat Board end of its sales monopoly Aug. 1. Cigi, which teaches customers how to use Canadian crops, was founded in 1972 by the wheat board and