Canadian Grain Commission preparing for its next 100 years

Higher fees, outside inspectors, and mandate change in the works, 
and changes to wheat variety registration may follow

Major changes are coming to the Canadian Grain Commission. “We’ve been around 100 years,” said CGC chief commissioner Elwin Hermanson. “If we want to be relevant for the next 100 years we have to make some changes to adapt to an industry that’s changing very quickly so we’re… providing the right services at that right

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


Floods drain Assiniboine farmers

Judging from the view of water covering a broad, green meadow of seeded cropland on both sides of the Assiniboine River here, the flood of 2012 is already underway. Near the town of Shellmouth, a little farther downstream, tiny canola plants are poking up through the mud of a broad flood plain. In the lower

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





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

Manitoba soils help NASA’s new gadgets take flight

From June 7 to July 17, the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) will fly two piloted aircraft several times a week over an area of mixed agricultural and forested land from Portage la Prairie to Carman in south-central Manitoba. These aircraft will carry instruments similar to those onboard a satellite that NASA will