Algal blooms are nothing new on Lake Winnipeg. But what’s causing them is a very complex, multi-jurisdictional problem.

Getting phosphorus out of Lake Winnipeg and onto fields

Manitoba’s agriculture needs and waterways are on opposite sides of the phosphorus debate — or are they?

Lake Winnipeg might be drowning in phosphorus, but plenty of soils in the province are gasping for it. Lake Winnipeg has become infamous for its water quality, and not in a good way. Algal blooms and E. coli cases have become a familiar state of affairs in the south basin, while over half of samples

Back when women weren’t soil scientists, Cindy Grant had to convince others agriculture research was the right place for her.

From convincing teachers agriculture was a real career to international honours

This retired AAFC soil researcher earned a long list of awards and honours while living on a farm and raising a family near Minnedosa

Cynthia Grant became a research scientist, just as she dreamed about while growing up on a farm near Minnedosa, but along the way she was also a pioneer. Her soil and agronomy research at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s (AAFC) Brandon Research Centre has been recognized with numerous Canadian and international awards and honours. The most


Sam Thorpe of Spade and Plow stands in front of a field of harvested artichoke plants at his family’s farm in San Martin, California, June 3, 2019.

In the heart of the U.S. high tech sector, farmers fight for land

In wealthy Silicon Valley, a $500-million plan to save threatened farmland

Thomson Reuters Foundation – With a swipe of his harvesting knife, Sam Thorpe frees a handful of spinach from its roots in the soil. “In the winter it’s so sweet it’s like candy,” he says, examining the small yield in his palm. For the past four years, Thorpe and his family have built a reputation

Yvonne Lawley talks cover crops during Crops-A-Palooza in Carberry in July.  
photos: Alexis Stockford

Calculating a good cover crop plan

Set yourself up for success when it comes to cover crops

Farmers will need more than a cursory plan to reap the benefit of cover crops in the Keystone province. Cover crops have gained their champions in Manitoba. The practice is cited among other alternative grazing strategies like bale or swath grazing to extend the grazing season and, arguably, improve soil, according to livestock and forage


People climb a dike formed by wind soil erosion during a field tour at the Global Forum on Soil Stewardship.

Soil degradation a costly global issue

About a third of the world’s soil is degraded, which has economic and food security implications

When Prairie-dwellers think of soil erosion, they may think of iconic photos from the Dirty ’30s: towering clouds of black soil blowing across desolate land, teacups turned upside down against drifting grit. But as Francis Zvomuya told the classroom of farmers and agronomists at the Global Forum on Soil Stewardship, soil degradation is far from

A blend of cover crop species is a tasty blend for cattle, but make sure they aren’t yours.

Mixed farmers need not apply for cover crop funding

The province says cover crop funding under Ag Action Manitoba only allows grazing on ‘stockless farms’

You can graze cattle on cover crops planted with help from Ag Action Manitoba — as long as they’re not your cattle, that is. Ag Action Manitoba is the province’s vehicle for funding under the Canadian Agricultural Partnership (CAP) program. Cover crops are among the beneficial management practices (BMPs) it promotes to improve the environment.


Farmers, agronomists, and people with an interest in global soil health met in Carman July 25 and 26 to discuss the challenges of protecting soil.

Carman event serves up common ground on soil health practices

Canadian and African agronomists shared perspectives on conservation agriculture at a recent Canadian Foodgrains Bank forum

Jocelyn Velestuk stood in front of the research station classroom filled with people and confessed to an addiction of sorts. “I am obsessed with soil,” the Saskatchewan farmer and agronomist told her audience. “I even had a mud-themed birthday party when I was young,” she said in a later interview. “The first soil science class

Clayton Robins is among the few farmers happy about the state of his pastures and hay crops, something he partly credits to his pasture management and integration of alternative grazing on annuals. His take on cover crops has earned him a place in the CFGA’s national carbon sequestration project.

Manitoba forage growers tapped for carbon project

The national project is the next step toward the CFGA’s goal of having farmers paid for storing carbon

Five Manitoba farmers are helping the Canadian Forage and Grassland Association (CFGA) put a value on carbon storage. Ryan Canart of Miniota, Allan Preston of Hamiota, Matt Van Steelandt of Melita, Jonathan Bouw of Anola and Clayton Robins of Rivers are all recognizable names on the grazing, soil health or regenerative agriculture field tour circuits


VIDEO: Soil stewardship event digs into soil health

VIDEO: Soil stewardship event digs into soil health

Foodgrains forum on soil conservation takes centre stage at Ian N. Morrison Research farm in Carman

Manitoba Co-operator reporter Geralyn Wichers talks with Dr. Francis Zvumoya (above) from the University of Manitoba’s Soil Science Department about soil degradation across the globe and what people in Manitoba are doing to support soil stewardship. Manitoba Co-operator reporter Geralyn Wichers talks with James Kornelson, Public Engagement Coordinator for the Canadian Foodgrains Bank about its

Comment: Bring back the PFRA

Soil conservation in Canada has been losing ground despite a general feeling erosion is a problem of the past

Some say it saved Western Canada. But the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration, perhaps the most respected government agency in Canada’s history, was dissolved in 2003. It’s time to bring it back. Scientific principles are one thing. Encouraging farmers to use them are another — that requires expertise in ‘extension,’ a word which has unfortunately fallen