The Prairie Innovation Centre is expected to repurpose the Valleyview Building on ACC's North Hill campus.

Crop Alliance commits $100,000 to Prairie Innovation Centre

ACC says centre is latest step in drive to become a national leader in a griculture education

The Manitoba Crop Alliance (MCA) has committed $100,000 to the Collaboration Zone within Assiniboine Community College’s Prairie Innovation Centre for Sustainable Agriculture. The Collaboration Zone is touted as a spot where education and industry will meet. MCA represents five key commodities in the province: spring and winter wheat, sunflowers, corn, barley and flax. “The birth

Opinion: Hey, genius, mind your own business

The agriculture industry isn’t always interested in some of the good advice it gets

It’s a rare honour to be named a MacArthur Foundation Fellow. In fact, in 40 years, only 1,061 have been awarded the title and the no-strings-attached stipend, this year a plush US$625,000, commonly referred to as a “genius grant.” Even more rare are MacArthur Fellows with ties to farming and food. Before this year, only


Assiniboine Community College on track for ag expansion

Assiniboine Community College on track for ag expansion

Construction on the Prairie Innovation Centre for Sustainable Agriculture will begin next year

Brandon’s ACC (Assiniboine Community College) is expecting to almost triple its students in ag-related programs over the next few years. The college is also set to start construction on its Prairie Innovation Centre for Sustainable Agriculture by next year, part of efforts to grow ag programs from 300 annual student spaces to 800. The college expects that

Prairie Innovation Centre gets $10,000 boost

Donation will support sustainable agriculture

Assiniboine College’s Prairie Innovation Centre for Sustainable Agriculture fund is $10,000 richer after a donation by Guild/HMS Insurance Group. The campaign to build this facility, Assiniboine’s response to labour market demands in agriculture, was announced in October 2020. “Agriculture is an important part of the communities (and we are) proud to operate across Westman,” said Brett McGregor, president at Guild/HMS. “Farmers feed



Ray Archuleta (left) with his volunteers, (left to right): Mike Bennet, Tyson Dueck, Codie Dueck and Markus Dueck.

Spreading the word

Pioneers of regenerative agriculture speak in Rosa

In late January, U.S. conservation ag guru Ray Archuleta asked for four volunteers to come to the front of the room and help him with an experiment. Called the ‘slake test’ it was designed to demonstrate soil stability to the 100 attendees at a soil health workshop at the Shevchenko Ukrainian Centre in Rosa. Archuleta,

Visitors to Brooks and Jen White’s farm, Borderland Agriculture near Pierson, Man., got a closer look at adaptive grazing with bison in summer 2018.

Can regenerative agriculture products find a premium niche?

“We have a product that we should be able to demand a premium from. I just don’t know how to do it,” says Brooks White

Pipestone’s Brooks White needs no convincing about the biological value of regenerative agriculture. His fields of cover crops, annual stands grazed by bison, and adaptive pasture system speak for themselves of his commitment to this way of farming. And for that commitment he’s been rewarded — in the form of lower inputs, higher soil organic matter, more and better feed for his livestock and

Investing in increasingly larger equipment to cover ever-expanding acreages might have run its course in Prairie agriculture.

Scaling up precision decision-making could shrink Prairie fields

Equipment designed for large uniform fields is poorly suited to variable-rate applications to zones within a field

When Terry Aberhart scans the Prairie horizon for ways precision technology can make his family’s Saskatchewan farm more profitable, he sees something big and cumbersome blocking his view. “One of the biggest challenges we have is the size of our equipment,” the award-winning agronomy coach and founder of the consulting firm Sure Growth Technologies said.



Canadian farmers can help save the planet and themselves by cutting petroleum-based farm inputs, according to a discussion paper written by farmer, researcher and author Darrin Qualman in co-operation with the National Farmers Union.

Rethinking the Green Revolution

Canada needs to ‘swing for the fences’ and transform its agriculture, says a new discussion paper

The climate change and farm income crisis have many of the same causes and solutions, according to a major new discussion paper. Cutting back on petroleum-based inputs, including nitrogen fertilizer, will reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) and increase net farm incomes by lowering input costs. The result: more farmers and revitalized rural communities, says the