Kurtis Howardson, owner of Implement Solutions, combined those ideas for an invention and added a degree of safety to it as well.

“The Drawhand was designed to save the elder person from getting in and out of the tractor,” said Howardson, “and more importantly, making sure that no one is behind the tractor to get injured.”

The Drawhand is a tool that lets tractor operators disconnect a hitch pin from farm implements from the safety and convenience of the tractor seat. At Manitoba Ag Days in January, Howardson’s invention won runner-up in the Farm Safety category in the show’s Innovation Showcase.

How it works

With tool in hand, a tractor operator reaches out the open rear window of a tractor, inserts the hitch pin into place once the implement is lined up and gives the tool a twist to release the pin.

The tool extends in length as needed and a pivot feature with a locking handle allows the pin to be lined up vertically to insert the pin into the hitch. A compression spring inside the Drawhand toolbar locks the specially designed pin in place.

From hay field idea to prototype

Howardson credits the idea for his invention to a moment helping his father-in-law during hay season. He was standing between a tractor and a sickle mower, preparing to drop in the hitch pin as the operator backed up to connect to the implement.

“I thought I was kind of in the line of fire there,” said Howardson. “So I wanted to ensure a little more safety in that aspect.”

The tool Howardson had at Ag Days was engineered at a shop in Winnipeg. The Drawhand is not yet in production, but Howardson is looking for someone to buy it from him so it can be built at scale.

The post VIDEO: Manitoba inventor designs tool to remove hitch pins from tractor seat appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

The finding addresses a question that has surfaced in U.S. research and among Prairie growers managing high-pH soils: does choosing a low IDC score come at the cost of yield where chlorosis is not present?

“We didn’t know the answer to this question until just now,” U of M researcher Kristen MacMillan said during a recent presentation at Ag Days in Brandon.

WHY IT MATTERS: Understanding how variety selection affects yield helps farmers make more confident decisions in challenging soil conditions.

“It’s a highly visual condition,” said MacMillan, who is also Manitoba Pulse and Soybean Growers’ agronomist in residence.

“We’re choosing varieties based on their visual response, but what is the actual yield correlation to that?”

IDC is a common issue in calcareous, high-pH soils, where iron becomes chemically unavailable to the plant.

The condition causes yellowing between the veins of young soybean leaves, typically appearing in patches and lasting from mid-June into July. While symptoms may only persist for a few weeks, early-season stress can reduce yield potential.

How much yield does IDC cost?

To understand how IDC severity translates into yield loss, MacMillan collaborated with Manitoba Agriculture to analyze six years of data from single-row plots rated annually for IDC response near Winnipeg. Those plots were taken through to harvest to compare visual scores with final yield.

The analysis confirmed that yield declines as IDC scores increase in affected areas.

MacMillan reported a yield loss of roughly 1.5 to 2.8 bushels per acre for every one-point increase in IDC score. In practical terms, a two-point difference between varieties could mean a three- to six-bushel swing in IDC-prone zones.

Is there a yield trade-off?

The more pressing question, however, was whether selecting for low IDC scores sacrifices yield elsewhere in the field.

Many growers report IDC often affects only portions of a field, yet variety decisions are made for the entire field. Research in North Dakota and South Dakota has identified yield trade-offs in some soybean populations, where selecting for IDC tolerance reduced yield under non-IDC conditions.

To test whether that trade-off exists under Manitoba conditions, MacMillan established paired trials in IDC and non-IDC areas of the same field using identical varieties. She also identified a common set of varieties grown over three years to ensure consistency in comparisons.

“What we’re finding is that yield is also negatively correlated with IDC score or not related at all. So this is good news,” she said.

In other words, varieties with strong IDC tolerance performed well in affected areas without yielding less in unaffected parts of the field.

MacMillan also examined whether precision-planting different cultivars in IDC and non-IDC zones would provide an advantage.

Because no yield penalty was detected, splitting varieties within a field offered little benefit in most scenarios. Only in fields almost entirely affected by IDC did a particularly strong cultivar show a measurable advantage.

“If IDC is a constraint in your fields, continue choosing varieties with low IDC score and high yield,” she said.

For growers managing high-carbonate Prairie soils, the data reinforce current practice: selecting IDC-tolerant varieties remains the most reliable defence without sacrificing yield potential where chlorosis never appears.

The post Selecting IDC-tolerant soybeans doesn’t reduce yield, Manitoba study confirms appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Bourgault Industries wanted to test a theory in the opposite direction on its 2,500-acre commercial farm: seed less to yield more.

The trials showed that while the plant stand obviously decreased, each individual canola plant grew larger, had better rooting systems and in drier years, actually yielded higher.

Curtis de Gooijer, agronomy manager with Bourgault Industries, aimed to compare the results of singulation versus volumetric metering.

“We said, what happens if we decreased our seeding rate with an air drill?” said de Gooijer.

The trial started from the typical canola seeding rate of five pounds an acre, decreasing to 1.25 pounds an acre.

“It’s a balancing act between the plant stand that you actually want to achieve with what your mortality is,” said de Gooijer, “and then what your seeding rate is there to come into it as well.”

Watch the full video interview to learn more.

The post VIDEO: Seed less canola, harvest more? Bourgault field trials say it’s possible appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

That may play into why Precision Planting’s CornerStone row unit was awarded one of several first prizes at Manitoba Ag Days’s Innovation Showcase awards in January.

WHY IT MATTERS: With today’s expensive seed and inputs, farmers want to maximize the chance the seed they put in the ground will emerge and yield.

The CornerStone is a fully customizable row unit that can be retrofit on any planter of a standard height which uses a seven-by-seven-inch planter bar.

“We’ve taken all the different benefits to each row unit on an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) platform and kind of tweaked it and added it into this one,” said Andrew Kippen, managing director with North Valley Precision Planting, a Manitoba-based provider of the piece of equipment.

Several of Precision Planting’s selling features come standard on the CornerStone row unit. The list the company hopes will entice farmers includes double-banded fertilizer placement, a two-stage closing system, plus a DuraWear gauge wheel arm and parallel arm pivot bushing systems.

Nitrogen placement can be applied in either a single or double band beside the seed row.

When it comes to seed management, the CornerStone uses Precision Planting’s electric vDrive motor and vSet seed metering system, which can be connected to an ISOBUS display.

On depth settings, Kippen said that farmers “can fine-tune the adjustment to the point of adjusting everything exactly the same across the planter.”

The CornerStone is one option on that upgrade path.

“A lot of guys are figuring out, how do I make better use of my capital?” said Crampton.

The CornerStone also markets itself on user friendliness, including the ability to easily remove parts.

The company points to its hopper design as an example. Each hopper is attached by a hinge. This allows the hopper to move out of the way of work or maintenance or to remove remaining seed. It’s available in three sizes: mini, 1.6-bushel and three-bushel.

“At the end of the day, if you had seed left over, it tips over centre,” said Kippen. “so we can actually pour it out and empty it very easily.”

“We want to have a row unit that, when there’s a problem, a customer can diagnose it easily and fix it themselves without relying on a dealership to have to come out,” he added.

The post VIDEO: CornerStone planter pitches easy operation for farmers appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Ahmed Abdelmagid, a research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), shared survey results at Manitoba Ag Days 2026 in Brandon earlier this winter.

WHY IT MATTERS: As white mould has become more common, it’s crucial for growers to pinpoint when and where the disease is likely to hit.

He said the disease, also known as sclerotinia, has emerged as the primary concern found during late-season field assessment, but noted that overall the intensity of the disease wasn’t high.

“White mould emerged as a most common one in 65 per cent of the fields surveyed … but the intensity was about 20 per cent,” Abdelmagid said.

The eastern region showed the highest severity at 72 per cent, while the southwest region saw the disease in 80 per cent of surveyed fields, though intensity remained relatively low at eight per cent.

The survey covered 72 fields across Manitoba’s six regions, with assessments conducted at both mid-season and late-season to capture diseases that appear at different growth stages. Manitoba producers seeded 1.6 million acres of soybeans in 2025, with 98 per cent precision seeded, achieving average yields of 45 to 50 bushels per acre.

Long-term challenge

White mould presents particular management issues because the fungus produces “survival structures” called sclerotinia that can persist in soil for up to 10 years.

“If it existed in one … field, this means it will last,” Abdelmagid said.

The disease requires specific environmental conditions to develop: temperatures between 15 and 25 degrees Celsius and high humidity. Weather prediction and field history are critical for determining fungicide timing.

“If you have seen it recently, like in the previous season, for example, or previous two seasons, this means you have duration,” Abdelmagid said.

The survey was conducted by Manitoba Agriculture field staff including Dennis Lange, provincial pulse and soybean specialist with Manitoba Agriculture.

While mould pressure was more severe in the later part of the 2025 growing season, Lange said.

“In that August time period, we had lots of growth in a number of fields, and we saw more white mould this year than we have in previous years.”

Management options limited

Looking forward, it’s important for producers to assess exactly where in their fields white mould is likely to show up, usually in fields that do not have a lot of air movement or have very dense canopy.

“Growers may want to adjust their seeding rates down a little bit, just to compensate for that excess growth,” Lange said.

If the canopy is wet at the time of flowering, that increases the potential for white mould, he added.

Producers should apply fungicides just before flowering if the field has a white mould history and weather forecasts predict high rainfall and humidity during that critical window.

Management strategies include crop rotation, using tolerant varieties, reducing seeding rates and implementing wider row spacing, though Abdelmagid said no soybean varieties currently offer complete resistance to the disease.

Other diseases

Beyond white mould, the survey identified other key diseases affecting Manitoba soybeans. Bacterial blight and septoria brown spot were common during mid-season surveys, appearing in 85 per cent of fields, though their overall impact on yield remained minimal.

Northern stem canker and frogeye leaf spot continued to appear throughout the season. Phytophthora root rot, while less prominent in the survey, remains a critical disease requiring both genetic resistance and seed treatments for effective management.

“Genetic resistance, in combination with the seed treatments, is so critical to manage Phytophthora root rot,” Abdelmagid said.

Abdelmagid said he hopes to work with North Dakota on developing a weather-based prediction system for white mould similar to systems used in Ontario, which would help producers determine optimal spray timing.

The post White mould tops 2025 disease threats in Manitoba soybean fields appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

The tiny, grey weevil was the greatest pest problem of the 2025 growing season, said Manitoba Agriculture entomologist John Gavloski.

“My poor summer students this year [found] 1,739 weevils in our 27 fields,” Gavloski told an audience at the 2026 Manitoba Ag Days in Brandon in January. “They were over double the economic threshold.”

WHY IT MATTERS: After a few years of minimal presence in Manitoba, cabbage seed pod weevil populations boomed in Manitoba in 2025 — in one case to twice the economic threshold.

Cabbage seed pod weevil is a three- to four-millimetre insect that lays its eggs inside young canola pods where its larvae feed on seeds. It overwinters as an adult under leaf debris and moves into flowering canola fields in late June and early July.

Gavloski’s survey results showed a dramatic population boom in 2025. In one field north of Carman, the count was as high as 226 weevils in a 25-sweep sample.

The economic threshold for cabbage seed pod weevil damage is 25 to 40 weevils per 10 sweeps, or 63 to 100 in the 25-sweep samples Gavloski’s survey uses. That Carman-area field was more than double the economic threshold and was treated once the population was confirmed.

Prior to 2025, the highest single-sample count Gavloski had recorded in his surveys was six weevils.

The pest has also been spreading eastward across the province. While populations were historically confined to southwestern Manitoba, weevils were detected as far east as the Ste. Anne area in 2025.

Scouting the critical first step

The weevil arrived in Manitoba from Alberta, where it had spread after an introduction to southern British Columbia in the 1930s. By 2017, it was first detected in Manitoba near Morden.

Survey counts remained very low for years before last season’s surge.

“We went from low counts to really high counts in the Carman area, going from 2024 to 2025,” Gavloski said.

“So bottom line, watch your fields. Start learning how to scout your fields.”

Scouting is complicated by the weevil’s defence mechanism: when disturbed, it drops to the ground and plays dead. Finding a three-to-four-millimetre grey insect on bare soil is no easy task.

“Just walking the field without a net, you could have a lot of them there and really not know it,” Gavloski said.

He recommends producers use a sweep net and conduct 10 sets of 10 sweeps: five near the field edge, five farther inside, during the flowering period in late June and early July.

Research from Alberta suggests that trap cropping (seeding the outside rows of a field one to two weeks earlier than the main crop, then spraying only those edges) can concentrate weevil populations and provide effective control while protecting pollinators in the main field.

Seeding date is another factor. Earlier-seeded canola, which flowers first, attracts significantly more weevils than later-seeded crops.

While cabbage seed pod weevil dominated the conversation, Gavloski noted several other insects that warranted attention across Manitoba during the 2025 season.

Flea beetle damage lessens, cutworms trend down

Flea beetles remained a concern but caused less economic damage than in recent years — largely due to a warm, moist spring.

“I don’t think it was because the flea beetle populations crashed,” Gavloski said. “I think it was because we finally got a season where people seeded the canola, it came up, and it seemed to have enough moisture and enough heat to get you from seedling to three to four leaf stage relatively quickly.”

Cutworms were still present and some fields were treated, but Gavloski said populations appear to be on the downward side of a cycle. He compared cutworm population dynamics to a bell curve: populations build, peak for a few years, then taper off, often driven by natural parasitoid activity. The worst years were 2020 and 2021.

“We’re kind of on that downward curve,” he said. “Populations have dropped off a little bit.”

Western and southwestern Manitoba bertha armyworm hotspots

Bertha armyworm became a regional concern, particularly in the western and southwestern parts of the province around Gladstone, Neepawa, Holland and Brandon. Some activity extended toward the central region.

Traps Gavloski monitors showed many locations crossing into the “uncertain risk” category during the summer. He noted some positive signs, however. There were reports of armyworms found dead on top of plants — a sign that naturally occurring viral and fungal pathogens had gotten into the population.

“If they’re up on the top of the pods in the day and they’re not moving, that’s a good thing. They’ve got pathogens. You want that,” he said.

Diamondback moths of low concern

Diamondback moths stayed relatively quiet in western Manitoba but caused some problems in the eastern part of the province in late summer. Populations are believed to have blown in on winds in late May and early June.

“They don’t overwinter well in the Canadian Prairies,” Gavloski said. “They’re just kind of getting blown in almost randomly on winds, and they get dumped wherever the winds dump them.”

Lygus bugs caused scattered economic-level infestations, primarily in the Interlake, and some fields were treated. Unlike the chewing insects on the list, lygus bugs pierce plant tissue with a beak-like mouthpart, inject enzymes and feed on the juice. They particularly target buds, flowers and young seeds.

On the positive side, Gavloski said that grasshoppers and aphids were largely non-issues across the province in 2025, with very little spraying required for either pest.

“Every year, weather drives things,” Gavloski said. “We get things that go up, we get things that go down.”

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Prairie Grain Analyzers’ Automatic Auger Sampler automatically takes grain samples from a grain auger while it’s running.

WHY IT MATTERS: This system allows farmers to take samples even more representative of their crop’s overall grade and condition (and has Manitoba roots).

The company’s grain auger-mounted device won first place in the Farm Built Solutions category in the Innovation Showcase at Manitoba Ag Days in January.

“It works by a simple mechanism that opens and closes to get you representative sampling of any grain that is taken through auger, grain leg, grain bagger or hopper bin,” said Chris Hendrickson, director of international business development with Prairie Grain Analyzers.

The device doesn’t require any modification to the auger itself, employing instead different sizes of inspection plates to fit a variety of brands of augers.

“That’s one of the really nice features about it,” said Hendrickson.

How it works

A pair of dials on the face of the device allows the operator to set the amount of the grain sample being taken, and the interval.

The auger’s size, its rate of flow and the type of grain collected determine how large a sample an operator will have at the end of the unload.

“We take the human error out of it,” Hendrickson said. “The auger sampler simply gets set to its parameters and it just runs.”

The device runs on a 12-volt DC connection and can be spliced into the auger’s power supply.

Hendrickson feels its Automatic Auger Sampler offers a quality-of-life improvement.

Operators need not stand in a cloud of grain dust to just get a grain sample and removes the possibility that a grower may forget to take a regular grain sample.

Hendrickson said the next step for the sampler is to integrate automatic moisture testing into the device.

“It’s not just going to take representative samples,” said Hendrickson.“It’s going to analyze those samples immediately after.”

The company also offers several portable and stationary devices that analyze grain moisture separately.

Pre-weighing or cleaning of the sample isn’t necessary.

“They’re designed for people to use,” said Hendrickson, “You simply fill up a cup … level it off, dump it into the tester, and it’s as simple as that. From there you get moisture, temperature and test weight of any crop.”

The testers come pre-calibrated with all major crops recognized by the Canadian Grain Commission or the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Results can be printed out via the analyzer itself — or, if a user prefers, results can be shared to a smartphone via an app.

The post Grain auger sampler takes top prize at Ag Days appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Last January, the mood was dominated by a single question: What would Donald Trump do next? The then-president elect’s inauguration was imminent. He had promised steep tariffs on Canada, and those tariff threats loomed over every conversation. Walking the aisles, I heard worry in farmers’ voices and saw it in tense expressions.

Some dismissed the anxiety as political bluster. Others quietly hoped Trump’s unpredictability might work in Canada’s favour. The Keystone Centre felt like a place of waiting, of held breath.

This year, it felt like the anxiety had shifted and deepened. The U.S. was no longer the only concern. China now loomed large — not as a distant market, but as an unpredictable and powerful force. Again, there had been big news, with Canada’s agreement-in-principle with China having just been announced days earlier. Conversations moved beyond Trump’s whims to broader questions of resilience, diversification and Canada’s reliance on traditional markets. The mood was no longer one of waiting, but quiet determination.

Outside of the ever-present topic of last year’s harvests, people were talking about ongoing tariffs on Canadian pork and cautious optimism around canola. Canola duties were promised to ease by March. Peas and canola meal had been promised tariff relief through 2026 and Canadian beef was inching back into China after a four-year halt.

Pork, however, remained subject to a 25 per cent tariff — costing Manitoba producers an estimated $100 million annually. Canola oil wasn’t part of the deal.

It’s a reminder that trade wins are often partial and fragile.

One of the most talked-about presentations came from U.S. analyst Jacob Shapiro. He urged farmers to tune out social media, stop worrying about Trump and to focus instead on what markets actually demand. That shift — from political anxiety to strategic thinking — echoed across Ag Days.

Manitoba Agriculture Minister Ron Kostyshyn emphasized domestic and interprovincial collaboration, framing trade uncertainty as a catalyst for innovation rather than defeat. The message was clear: Canadian agriculture can shape its own future.

Covering Ag Days for the second year in a row, the contrast was striking. Last year felt reactive. This year felt proactive. The narrative had shifted from fear to foresight, from uncertainty to agency.

If Ag Days 2026 proved anything, it’s that Manitoba’s farmers aren’t just surviving global trade turbulence, they’re learning how to navigate it on their own terms.

The post OPINION: Ag Days 2026 moved talk from trade anxiety to tactics appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Survey numbers of the cabbage seedpod weevil exploded in 2025 in some canola growing areas of Manitoba.

It could be a blip. If not though, this insect could pose a big problem for Manitoba canola growers in 2026. At Manitoba Ag Days 2026, Gavloski spoke about how canola growers can meet this challenge and what other bugs Manitoba producers need to watch for this upcoming growing season.

The post VIDEO: Manitoba’s cabbage seedpod weevil explosion appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

The choice can depend on the size of your operation, but Todd Botterill, a salesperson with AllAgParts, says that’s what he’s seeing and hearing.

Cost aside, Botterill says the Feed Eazy Pro 3020 tub grinder also significantly reduces the time it takes to grind up round bales for feed.

WHY IT MATTERS: Easily availabile equipment that offers an economy of operating cost is important for farms where the economies of scale aren’t top priority.

“What we’ve been finding here lately, the market had really been pushing towards the large TMR mixers,” he says, “but when you start grinding bales with them, quite often, you’re sitting there for an hour, hour and a half using a fairly large tractor … it’s a job that a tub grinder can do in five minutes.”

Botterill and his colleagues from AllAgParts were at Manitoba Ag Days in January, talking up the benefits of the Feed Eazy Pro 3020, a first-place winner in the Animal and Livestock category in the farm show’s Innovation Showcase.

The 3020 is the company’s mid-size machine, capable of grinding hay bales, silage bales or straw bales, Botterill said, although operators are not limited to these types.

The company produces a smaller and larger version of the 3020 as well.

“We can actually put in an attachment to grind grain as well for people who want to add grain to their mix,” Botterill says.

Livestock producers have been looking for alternative systems to speed up bale processing time and reduce operating costs, he says.

“They may still put (feed) in the TMR,” he says. “Some guys are actually going back to the less-expensive horizontal mixers, so it allows guys to reduce the cost of the machinery they’re using.”

Keeping costs low was key to making the Feed Eazy accessible to producers.

To achieve that, the 3020 unit is imported from overseas for finishing at Winkler, Man.

“Overseas production has allowed us to reduce a lot of the costs involved in getting the machine put together, but it hasn’t sacrificed any quality,” Botterill says.

The company they work with has a lot of experience working with North American companies and building to North American standards, he adds. Wear parts such as bearings or hydraulics can be easily sourced within North America when the time comes for replacement.

The result is a machine that’s tougher than its competitors, with a significant price advantage as well, Botterill says.

“There’s not a lot of fancy pieces in it,” he adds.

“I think (for) the majority of the guys we’re dealing with in Manitoba, this unit would be ideal.”

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