The rangeland and pasture health assessment tool aims to help land users and producers determine potential plant community composition, forage production, stocking rates and the impacts of management practices on ecological functions.

Creating a better process for assessing pasture

Stakeholders from across the industry are currently working together to develop 
a Manitoba-focused rangeland and pasture health assessment

Following in the footsteps of our Prairie neighbours, Manitoba is working towards developing a customized rangeland and pasture health assessment. “The project is born out of similar initiatives that started in the United States, Alberta and then Saskatchewan. They have developed these tools for assessing rangeland health, looking at various indicators like bare soil, litter

Greg Cherewyk.

Growing Forward 3 a chance to think big

Pulse Canada’s COO calls for an ambitious agenda 
as the next agriculture policy framework looms

Canada needs to quit fiddling around the edges of its agri-food policies and start thinking big. That’s the message Greg Cherewyk, Pulse Canada’s chief operating officer, brought to a recent meeting of the Commons agriculture committee. He used the occasion to call for a new focus on continuous improvement and transformational innovation in the upcoming


Farm environmental plans to be made national

Farm environmental plans to be made national

Ottawa stakeholder summit suggests making the plans consistent across Canada

It’s time to take provincial farm environmental plans to the federal level to ensure consistency and simplicity for the industry. That’s why a steering committee of agri-food representatives is in the works to guide the transition to a national program, says Ron Bonnett, president of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, speaking at a recent national

Roots are an often overlooked part of any plant.

Scientists root out answers

A new and simpler method to measure root mass promises plant scientists better insight into the below-ground differences of plants

When it comes to plant roots it’s out of sight, out of mind. But roots are an essential part of almost all plants and crucial to plant productivity and food production. For scientists, a better understanding of roots is important and their measurement is increasingly of interest. The problem is measuring roots is a hard


Minto farmer Bill Campbell says based on the erratic weather on his farm the past five years climate change is real. During a debate on carbon pricing at Keystone Agricultural Producers’ advisory council meeting in Portage la Prairie Nov. 3 he argued passionately farmers should participate in reducing greenhouse gas emission.

KAP develops carbon pricing position after intense debate

Farmers should be exempted from paying a price on emissions resulting directly from food production, while getting some of the carbon revenues to help them further reduce emissions

There was vigorous back and forth as the Keystone Agricultural Producers laid out its carbon policy Nov. 3 at the fall advisory council meeting in Portage la Prairie. At times the discussion turned emotional as both sides had strongly held views on the issue. Farmers’ should be exempted from paying a price on any carbon

Young man reading shopping list in produce aisle, side view, close-up

‘You’re wrong’ is the wrong message

Trying to dictate what products consumers should get or what 
food companies should supply them is surely a losing tactic


When most of us hear the words, “Have I got a great deal for you!” we grab our wallets because experience suggests any forthcoming deal won’t be great. Similarly, when someone says, “Here’s the straight talk,” our baloney meters redline because we know the coming talk will be about as straight as a hound’s hind


KAP general manager James Battershill says a good carbon pricing plan can make farmers part of the solution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and generate farmers some new revenues at the same time.

KAP takes proactive stance on carbon pricing

The group says a good plan could help farmers be part of the 
solution and generate new revenue while doing it

Pricing carbon to encourage fewer greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate climate change will affect all Canadians, including farmers. How depends on the program each province implements. It could raise farmers’ nitrogen fertilizer and fuel costs, but sequestering carbon with zero-till or rotational grazing could earn credits offsetting some of those costs. And while some farm

Farmers Edge investing millions in sustainable crop production

Farmers Edge investing millions in sustainable crop production

Sustainable Development Technology Canada is one of the investors

Farmers Edge, the made-in-Manitoba global precision agriculture company, is investing millions of dollars in a bid to make crop production more sustainable. Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) announced a $6.1-million investment with Famers Edge Sept. 21. Farmers Edge and a consortium of partners will contribute another $12.2 million. The money will be used to develop


Martin Entz stands in the porch of a tiny clubhouse built so researchers and students could take shelter from the weather at the Glenlea Long-Term Study.

Twenty-five years of organics

Canada’s longest-running study of organic crop systems continues to yield new results

Martin Entz points down a road that is more mud than gravel as he drives towards a pint-size field house and a cluster of research plots. “This has become a real destination, it didn’t start out that way, but it certainly is now,” he said, turning towards the Glenlea Long-Term Rotation Study — the oldest

Pressure is growing from gasoline refiners to rethink the structure of biofuel mandates.

U.S. refiners revamp operations as renewable fuel costs surge

Pressure is building to tweak renewable fuel standards as refiner profit margins are crushed

U.S. oil refiners, beset by the weakest profit margins in six years, have been laying off workers, revamping operations and ratcheting up pressure on regulators and lawmakers to tweak the renewable fuel program, whose costs have ballooned. The top 10 U.S. independent refiners look set to take a record hit on renewable fuel credits this