Ian Bell

Murray Downing continues planting an idea that he hopes farmers can benefit from. The challenge for the Reston, Man., farmer is getting the idea to take root in the minds of producers, politicians and bureaucrats. Downing last year developed a proposal for an income assurance program that he said could give farmers a buffer against […] Read more

A delegation was in Ottawa last week trying to pry $85 million from the federal coffers for Manitoba farmers affected by excess moisture last spring. The delegation met with several influential members of Parliament, including federal agriculture minister Lyle Vanclief. Brandon mayor Reg Atkinson, a member of the delegation, said they were greeted with some […] Read more

Michael McCain appeared nonchalant last week about the prospects of his main rival expanding in Manitoba. McCain, chief executive officer of Maple Leaf Foods, described the planned expansion of Schneider’s hog processing plant in Winnipeg as something that “could, on balance, be neutral to positive.” McCain said the $125 million expansion at Schneider’s Winnipeg facility […] Read more

Steve Van Wagenen was excited last week about the prospects for the short-line railway he manages in southern Manitoba. He had just learned that one of the line’s largest customers, an elevator at Mariapolis, Man., will be reopened this spring by an independent grain company. Delmar Commodities Ltd., a licensed and bonded grain company based […] Read more

A group concerned with the spread of leafy spurge says the noxious weed is spreading through Manitoba like a bad disease. A study completed by the Leafy Spurge Stakeholders Group shows the amount of land affected by the weed has more than doubled since 1993. Leafy spurge was found on about 125,000 acres of land […] Read more

MINOT, N.D. – Farmers were left to draw their own conclusions last week after a climatologist predicted warm, dry weather will prevail this spring in the Northern Plains. Leon Osborne, a climatology professor with the University of North Dakota, said the La Nina weather phenomenon will cause below-normal precipitation for most of the region until […] Read more

MINOT, N.D. – There was a time when rainfall was always a blessing at the farm of Kenneth Topp. That started to change five years ago with the arrival of a wet cycle that meant too much moisture for some of Topp’s grain land. He now has 50 acres that grow almost no crop. He […] Read more

Dealer purity is on the minds of legislators in Manitoba and Alberta, due in part to the lobbying efforts of the Canada West Equipment Dealers Association. Saskatchewan passed legislation in December banning major manufacturers from forcing dealers to sign contracts that prevent them from carrying competing lines of equipment. With the new legislation, Saskatchewan farm […] Read more

MINOT, N.D. – Warren Kaeding was embarrassed by what he saw last summer in his trial plots of fall-seeded canola. The stands were thin, short and patchy, suggesting he could expect no more than 25 bushels per acre. They were also beside a well-traveled highway for all the neighbors to see. Kaeding, a farmer and […] Read more

Workers at Schneider’s Marion Street slaughter plant in Winnipeg will hold a strike vote within a week after rejecting the company’s latest contract offer. The 125 employees, members of United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 832, voted 68 percent against the offer, which had been recommended for acceptance by the committee negotiating on their behalf. […] Read more