Manitoba Hydro staff have been running hard this week clearing ice from power lines. This Hydro employee was knocking hoarfrost off a line three miles west of Miami, Man., Thursday (Dec. 17) afternoon. Power outages have occurred in many areas of Manitoba, especially in south-central and western regions. In some cases transmission lines have been damaged, while in others Manitoba Hydro has turned the power off so staff could clear the lines. Some people on social media have reported being without electricity for 12 hours.

Need for more disaster planning in rural Manitoba

A seminar Jan. 14 in Portage la Prairie will look at how the risk environment is changing in rural Manitoba

Just as it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a community to prepare for disaster. The Association of Manitoba Municipalities (AMM) and the Manitoba governments Emergency Measures Organization (EMO) want input from municipal leaders, emergency co-ordinators, rural businesses and ordinary citizens on how best to prepare for climate change in the face

U.S. winter weather to see El Niño’s influence

U.S. winter weather to see El Niño’s influence

Northern-tier states are expected to be warmer, drier than normal

Much of the U.S. South can expect a cooler and wetter winter, while warmer-than-usual temperatures are likely across many northern and western states, as a strong El Niño weather pattern shaped a government weather outlook issued Oct. 15. More rain and snow are likely across the nation’s southern regions, extending from central California to Texas


The receding waterline of Lake Hodges is seen in San Diego County Jan. 17, 2014, when California Governor Jerry Brown declared a drought emergency.

Considering the true cost of agricultural production systems

Externalizing the cost of production is becoming less acceptable to society

California is in the midst of a multi-year drought that has reduced the snowpack and rains that fill the reservoirs and irrigation canals that provide water for the cities of the state as well as agricultural production. The result is lower allocations and higher prices for all water users including agriculture. Some farmers have responded

late blight on tomato plant

Manitoba’s first late blight infection found in potato field near Carberry

Home gardeners need to be vigilant now to avoid spreading the fungal disease next year

Late blight, the fungal disease responsible for the Irish potato famine, has been found in the Carberry area for the first time this year. Commercial potato growers should apply fungicides to protect uninfected fields and treat infected ones, but it’s home gardeners Vikram Bisht wants to get a warning to. Potatoes infected with late blight


grain bag

Editorial: Keep talking about farm safety

We’re going out on a limb here to say the farmers featured in this week’s front-page story are courageous, not because they survived their harrowing ordeal, but because they are talking about it. The father and son duo made a mistake that could have ended tragically. Joel Dewitz admits to feeling pretty sheepish about the

STARS celebrated 30 years in operation in May. The program began 
in Calgary in 1985.

Stranded on an island for a good cause

STARS Rescue on the Island event will soon see a number of well-known Manitoba community members left on an isolated island until they can earn their way home

Elm Creek producer Colin Penner will leave his tractor cab mid-harvest to be dropped on a remote island hoping he gets enough support from the agricultural community to get home. “It’s not every day you get to participate in a phenomenal fundraiser like this. It does make me nervous to be away during our busy


Manitoba Crop Report and Crop Weather report: Issue 14

Manitoba Crop Report and Crop Weather report: Issue 14

Conditions as of August 4, 2015

Winter wheat and fall rye harvest is underway in Manitoba. Preliminary reports indicate winter wheat yields range from 60 to 85 bu/acre, with low levels of fusarium damaged kernels in harvested samples. There are also a few fields of spring wheat, barley and field peas harvested last week. Swathing or preharvest applications in the earliest-seeded spring

Spotted wing drosophila (SWD) is a vinegar (fruit) fly of East Asian origin that can damage many crops by piercing healthy fruit and laying its eggs.

Spotted Wing Drosophila an unwelcome visitor to fruit farms this summer

MAFRD began monitoring for SWD in 2013 and this is the worst year yet, say provincial fruit crops specialist

Altona-area fruit grower Waldo Thiessen knew what was wrong immediately when his U-pick customers started calling back a few hours after their first day in his raspberry patch in mid-July. “They said they’d started to make jam, and, well, there was a lot of protein (in the raspberries),” he said. It was larvae of spotted


The Raynor’s farmland was completely dishevelled and a number of out buildings were destroyed.

Tornado among several storm events in the southwest

Two rural properties took the brunt of Manitoba's most recent violent weather episode

Displaced bales, crushed crops and chunks of metal scatter fields in the southwest as the area recovers from one of Manitoba’s largest tornadoes in recent years. A low-pressure system that moved in from Montana sparked the extreme weather, which also doused the Virden area with nearly 75 mm of rain. Quarter-sized hail was also reported

Instability and vorticity: The ingredients that make a tornado

Instability and vorticity: The ingredients that make a tornado

Since they can’t get inside to measure, scientists aren’t completely sure how funnel clouds and tornadoes form

So far this month weather conditions have been fairly good for thunderstorms to develop with plenty of warm, humid air around. This week, we’ll continue our look at severe thunderstorms, and specifically, the most deadly part — tornadoes. What are tornadoes and how do they form? A classic definition of a tornado is a violently