More New Year ad-verse-ity

Yes, that time again, it’s become a tradition To editorialize in verse in the year’s first edition We review the year past, then with great perspicacity Predict the next year’s events with remarkable accuracy Well, most of the time, because I have to confess That the advice I gave last year was not quite the

Soybeans hot, flax is not for 2013

Expect to see a lot more soybeans and corn planted in Manitoba next spring and a lot less flax and barley, seed growers said during their annual “what’s hot, what’s not” session last month. Hard red spring and general purpose wheat are expected to be popular too, growers told the Manitoba Seed Grower Association’s annual


Let the good times roll

Some scoffed when federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said farmers wouldn’t have to start their trucks in winter because in an open market they could deliver all their wheat in fall. Not Norm Mabon. The Notre Dame de Lourdes farmer did just as Ritz forecast. “One hundred per cent of my wheat was sold and

Time to move past divisive wheat-marketing debate

Richard Gray won’t miss the fighting amongst western Canadian farmers over the Canadian Wheat Board. The University of Saskatchewan agricultural economist says the long, divisive debate distracted farmers from tackling even more financially important issues such as crop research. Grain marketing has been a touchy issue. A farmer who declined to be interviewed likened it


Is it time to rethink your phosphorus management?

Farmers may need to rethink their phosphorus management due to the dramatic shift in Manitoba acres towards canola and soybeans at the expense of cereals, an Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada researcher says. Cynthia Grant, a soil management and fertility specialist with the Brandon Research Centre told the Manitoba Agronomy Conference farmers are growing more crops




Railway revenues rekindle costing review calls

Canada’s two major railways once again tipped over the statutory cap revenues for shipping grain during the 2011-12 crop year — costing farmers an extra two cents per tonne. “It underscores again the need for a costing review to parallel the (rail) service review,” Bladworth Sask., farmer and agricultural economist Ian McCreary said in an



Grain Growers funded to promote grain sales

Fifty thousand dollars in federal government money is going to the Grain Growers of Canada to promote Canadian grain, which will include sending farmers on overseas trade missions. It’s part of $208,000 David Anderson, parliamentary secretary for the Canadian Wheat Board, announced here Nov. 21 during the annual Grain Industry Symposium organized by the Canada