Ian Bell

Several times in recent years, rural councils have been caught in the crossfire as residents opposed to the so-called corporate-style barns clashed with those who see the hog industry as another vehicle for economic development. The confrontations have at times pitted neighbor against neighbor and friend against friend. Although new barns grab headlines when they […] Read more

A slide show told part of the story about life in rural Tanzania. A group of 4-H members helped tell the rest during a recent gathering in Brandon. The nine youths from western Manitoba traveled this spring to Tanzania where they found life in a developing country vastly different from their own. A one-furrow plow […] Read more

The recent wet weather could be more of a blessing than a curse to farmers in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. There are pockets of land where too much moisture has yellowed crops, but the rains have also bolstered subsoil moisture and increased the region’s overall yield potential. “If we get some heat, the crops are going […] Read more

Several communities want to derail the sale this month of a stretch of track in northwestern Manitoba. The Cowan subdivision, which runs from north of Dauphin, Man., to south of Swan River, was sold by Canadian National to Cando Contracting, a company interested in tearing up the track for salvage. But rural councils in the […] Read more

A group of North Dakota cattle producers is expected to have what was once a dream of Manitoba cattle producers. Central Dakota Beef of Maddock, N.D., is supporting a $3 million slaughter plant to produce halal meat for North America’s Muslim community. Construction is to start this month, said Central Dakota Beef president Paul Kallenbach. […] Read more

ETHELBERT, Man. – Peter Knutson knew he had to do something to halt the spread of black poplar and aspen on his land. Trees and bushes were creeping across his pastures and edging out the grasses his cattle needed for summer forage. “Before this was logged off there weren’t too many openings left here,” he […] Read more

RUSSELL, Man. – In Garry Halwas’s field of dreams, there is one crop standing above all others. Halwas owns and manages Sunridge Forage Ltd., a company that exports compressed timothy hay to markets in Japan and Korea. Finding buyers for the compressed hay is never a problem, said Halwas during a tour of the Sunridge […] Read more

Kelly O’Grady began to suspect four years ago that two of her four children might have attention deficit disorder. A son was showing disruptive and aggressive behavior. Her daughter, then in Grade 1, was struggling. “She would come home crying and saying that the work was too hard,” recalls O’Grady, a registered nurse from Pembroke, […] Read more

A battle over the fate of a rail line in northwestern Manitoba last week appeared headed for the courts after a rural municipality defied CN Rail’s efforts to tear out a section of the track. Shortly after CN Rail began dismantling part of the Erwood subdivision in early June, the Rural Municipality of Mountain served […] Read more

A growing number of farmers across the Prairies are including fall-seeded canola in their plantings. The idea appears simple at a glance. Canola seed is planted in late autumn to germinate the following spring. But there are catches, including a risk that the seed will germinate in fall, leaving it vulnerable to winter. “There is […] Read more