Ian Bell

STARBUCK, Man. – Scott Livingston knows what to expect when he sits down to crunch the numbers from his farm this year. “It will be a break-even year at best,” he said, during a pause from swathing canola east of Starbuck. Livingston’s hopes of a bountiful canola crop were dashed by heavy rains that fell […] Read more

Rather than stopping at a supermarket, someone decided it was cheaper to get fresh beef from a farmer’s corral. Two pregnant cows were stolen this month from a farm near Durban, a community in northwestern Manitoba. The first cow went missing Aug. 6. A day later, the owner discovered a second cow missing, said Const. […] Read more

RUSSELL, Man. – When Frank Skinner arrived in western Manitoba to homestead a century ago, his plan was to make a living by raising cattle. His land was on the edge of the open prairie, but was backdropped by the forested lands of Manitoba’s parkland region. The Scottish immigrant often saddled a horse and rode […] Read more

A recent survey of cereal crops shows farmers in Manitoba again need to be vigilant for fusarium head blight when harvesting and storing crops. Fusarium was found in most crops surveyed, said Andy Tekauz, a plant pathologist with Agriculture Canada’s Cereal Research Centre. The average severity in wheat crops was 10 percent. The average severity […] Read more

HOLMFIELD, Man. – Roland Hacault was frank last week in his assessment of the honey harvest in his area of southwestern Manitoba. “It’s not looking very good,” he said as he removed the lids from honeybee colonies. “It’s going to be well below what it was last year.” That sentiment was shared by Phil Veldhuis, […] Read more

Western Canadian farmers could see slightly higher returns on most wheats in the new crop year, but durum prices are expected to decline. The Canadian Wheat Board made those predictions Aug. 2 during its annual crop year-end report. “The slight optimism in milling wheat is offset somewhat by concern over a very large durum crop,” […] Read more

More cattle will have to be tested following confirmation of tuberculosis in a wild elk near Riding Mountain National Park. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency recently confirmed that an elk shot in an area north of the park last winter had the disease. The agency expects to know in a matter of weeks whether another […] Read more

MINIOTA, Man. – Tim Flannery shakes his head and scoffs at the latest farm income forecast out of Ottawa. The forecast predicts a rise in farm income across the Prairies in the 2000 calendar year. Flannery, who farms in western Manitoba, wonders how that prediction can be right. “I don’t know where they get these […] Read more

Agriculture Canada’s farm income forecast masks the crisis that still grips much of Western Canada’s farm community, says the executive secretary of the National Farmers Union. The forecast for the 2000 calendar year suggests realized net farm incomes across the Prairies should rise this year compared to 1999. But Darrin Qualman said much of the […] Read more

NEEPAWA, Man. – With sweat beading on his forehead, Bruce Bremner pauses to survey the wreckage around him. A canola crop that once stood two metres tall now hugs the ground. Splintered tree trunks jut from what was once a shelterbelt, and two wooden sheds lie in a mangled heap. Bremner’s farm took the full […] Read more