Daniel Winters

A main obstacle in expanding canola acres on the Prairies is the difficulty farmers have harvesting it. The dry pods have a tendency to shatter, spilling seeds onto the ground before they make it into the combine. At Manitoba Ag Days, two producers presented their approaches to this problem. “For years, I used to swath […] Read more

About 3,400 farmers have successfully participated in two one-day environmental farm planning workshops in Manitoba. The farmers, who account for nearly one-third of the 15 million acres of arable land in Manitoba, filled out EFP workbooks and received certificates of completion. Another 600 have attended meetings but haven’t yet received certificates. Wanda McFadyen, executive director […] Read more

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

Compensation claims for livestock losses in Manitoba due to predators were up slightly last year, according to figures released by the Manitoba Agricultural Services Corp., or MASC. More than 1,227 claims were received in 2006, for which $363,660 was paid out to producers who lost cattle, calves, sheep and lambs. Total payments were up more […] Read more

Glyphosate resistant weeds are causing major headaches for farmers in many parts of the world, says an Australian weed expert. “It was originally thought that glyphosate resistant weeds would be very rare. There were examples in the first 25 years of its use where we had people deliberately go out and select such weeds,” Ian […] Read more

Over a 50 year career in the farm machinery world, John Buhler has developed his own way of looking at business, which he calls Buhler logic. Speaking at Manitoba Ag Days, the chair and chief executive officer of Buhler Industries, the largest Canadian owned manufacturer of farm equipment, offered up amusing anecdotes for the audience. […] Read more

Although growing hemp has been legal in Canada for almost a decade, farmers and activists south of the border are still fighting for the right to plant the crop. In mid-January, North Dakota assistant house majority leader and farmer David Monson applied for an industrial hemp licence from the state’s agriculture commissioner. “I expect that […] Read more

Slumping grain prices a few years ago prompted David Rourke to look for new ways to maximize profits, eventually leading him into the burgeoning business of ethanol production. “Things weren’t too rosy on the grain farms, and we were all looking for other alternatives to make our farms work,” said Rourke, owner of Hog Hill […] Read more