Ian Bell

Bob Lytle plans to grow edible beans this year, even though prices aren’t as good as last year. The new-crop price for navy beans last week was 18 cents a pound, a far cry from the high prices of 1999. “It still probably pencils out as good as anything,” said Lytle, a grower near High […] Read more

Charlie Coleman was shaken by the death of his daughter-in-law last July. Patricia Kilmury, 27, died after contracting hantavirus, a disease known to have killed 12 people across Western Canada in the past decade. The virus is carried by deer mice, which are common across the Prairies. Coleman believes his daughter-in-law contracted the virus on […] Read more

Don Bromley appeared upbeat after learning of a new safeguard for farmers who cannot plant a crop due to excess moisture. The Manitoba government last week announced its new excess moisture insurance program as part of basic Manitoba Crop Insurance coverage. The program will pay $50 per acre to producers unable to seed a crop […] Read more

In the town of Virden, Man., there are fewer residents seeing red these days when they look in the mirror. This fall, several of the town’s residents were sporting unwanted orange-tinged hairstyles after the local water supply was contaminated with traces of iron. But the reluctant redheads are gradually regaining the looks – and the […] Read more

The Canadian cattle industry says it may have lost as much as $90 million because of the United States dumping duty imposed last year. That’s in addition to the $6 million spent by the industry to defend itself against allegations that Canadian cattle were being dumped into the U.S. market at below cost of production. […] Read more

A Manitoba farmer has a beef about the way money will be refunded from the dumping duty applied to Canadian beef exporters this year. Some of that money will flow back to order buyers and cattle exporters who shipped cattle into the United States while the duty was in effect, said Marvin Mohr, a producer […] Read more

While scouting a canola field for lygus bugs two years ago, Rod Lanier came across a pest insect he had never before seen on his farm. The insect, the cabbage seedpod weevil, had migrated into his field from a nearby highway where canola plants served as a cover in ditches. “The edge of our field […] Read more

Bill Turnock had no luck a year ago persuading the provincial Tories to study how much hog production Manitoba can handle. The chair of the Manitoba Environmental Council was ignored by then environment minister Jim McCrae, who represented a government keen on getting Maple Leaf to build a hog processing plant in Brandon. But the […] Read more

The federal auditor general, normally a relentless critic of government waste, loose planning and sloppiness, offered some rare praise after delving into Agriculture Canada’s rural development program. In a report to Parliament, auditor general Denis Desautels had little but praise for the $60 million annual Canadian Adaptation and Rural Development fund. CARD was created in […] Read more

After striking out twice, the Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund is debating whether to go to bat for a third time. The group of American cattle producers will decide in February whether to appeal the International Trade Commission’s ruling on live cattle exported to the United States from Canada. R-Calf chief executive officer John Lockie said […] Read more