Faced with the lowest prices in a decade, most honey producers are holding off selling last year’s bumper crop in the hopes that the situation improves, according to Heather Clay, national co-ordinator of the Canadian Honey Council. “There’s not a lot of honey moving, only those who are really desperate are selling right now,” said […] Read more
Stories by Daniel Winters
Tinkering with practices won’t save world: expert
The practice of agriculture as it is done today, is exactly the same as that which led to the destruction of more than 20 past civilizations, according to holistic management founder Allan Savory. “When I look at the people trying to sequester carbon, as Al Gore is talking of, this is wonderful stuff. I’m not […] Read more
Producer takes holistic approach
Livestock is the ultimate tool for restoring soil productivity, says a North Dakota cattle produce. When Gene Goven started farming near Turtle Lakes, N.D., in 1967, he raised cattle the conventional way, putting up hay every summer and grazing them all season in a single pasture, guided solely by the calendar. But he found that […] Read more
Producers skeptical of Ottawa’s APF vision
Policymakers are looking for new input, and possibly confirmation that some of their programs are the correct ones, according to Christine Burton, director of rural policy and strategic development for Agriculture Canada. She represented Ottawa at the Brandon stop of the nationwide tour of the second round of federal consultation sessions last week. Burton said […] Read more
British merchant made life on Prairies
It took a special kind of person to forsake the comforts of upper-class life in England at the peak of the British Empire’s strength and scratch out a new beginning on the prairie near Brandon in the early 1880s. Percy Criddle, perhaps the unlikeliest of the early settlers, was lured with the promise of cheap […] Read more
Potato sales rebound as diet fad wanes
The outlook for potato producers is positive this year, says Ian Wishart, who grows 300 acres of irrigated spuds on his 1,500 acre mixed operation north of Portage la Prairie, Man. “Near as we can tell, the demand is probably going to clear up everything that is out there and maybe some of the inventory […] Read more
Veteran remains sold on zero till
Making the switch from tillage to zero till requires big changes in the way a farmer thinks and works and especially how he reacts to problems such as weeds, diseases and pests, says Dwayne Beck, manager of the Dakota Lakes Research Farm near Pierre, South Dakota. The veteran no-tiller said farming systems are made up […] Read more
Researchers put openers to the test
A two-year study of air seeder openers at Alberta Agriculture’s Agricultural Technology Centre in Lethbridge has found that they all worked similarly well. “All the openers were quite significantly different, so it’s pretty hard to compare them,” said Blaine Metzger, a project technologist who helped evaluate six openers of four types from four manufacturers. “Each […] Read more
Curling fans hurry hard to rec room
A Manitoba inventor and entrepreneur may have found the perfect rec room solution for curling lovers. Ron Tibble, a former grain buyer from Russell, Man., invented the miniature curling game in 2001 after he was sidelined by a shoulder injury. “I made one in my basement because I didn’t have enough room for a pool […] Read more
Maple Leaf moves to open housing
Maple Leaf Foods is giving itself 10 years to phase out the use of gestation stalls on its hog operation and make the transition toward open group housing. Gestation stalls, which have come under fire from animal welfare activists in recent years, confine pregnant sows for as long as 90 days at a stretch. “We […] Read more
