The 2010 cereal crop in Western Canada may have been small in quantity and poor in quality, but it generated an estimated $5.8 billion in net revenue for farmers, the fourth highest in the history of the Canadian Wheat Board. At its annual year-end press conference, held in late August in Winnipeg, the CWB announced […] Read more
Robert Arnason
Stories by Robert Arnason
What’s bugging bees?
There is something wrong with bees, the pollinators responsible for adding billions of dollars of value to the world’s crops. An unusually large number of bee colonies are not surviving the winter, but it is not clear why. Some scientists believe the problem is linked to familiar pests and diseases. There is also new evidence […] Read more
Invest in wetlands to mitigate flood costs: KAP
Sandbagging, sandbag volunteers and diking were prominently featured in the media coverage of this year’s 2½ month spring flood in Manitoba. Doug Chorney felt sorry for the flood victims, but the media coverage on the number of sandbags available to fight the flood drove him up the wall. “I get frustrated when I hear municipal […] Read more
Centre established to improve agricultural knowledge
ST. ADOLPHE, Man. — The University of Manitoba’s new Bruce D. Campbell Farm and Food Discovery Centre is hoping to improve urban consumers’ understanding of modern food production. On Sept. 16, the university will open the centre, located at the university’s Glenlea Research Station south of Winnipeg. “This isn’t a thing that we expect to […] Read more
Grain values up in latest PRO
The Canadian Wheat Board has upped its Pool Return Outlook for wheat by $12 to $18 per tonne, but the board cautioned that further increases are unlikely because global wheat production in the 2011-2012 crop year will likely be the third highest ever. In an August 25 release, the board explained that recent gains in […] Read more
CWB forecasts better quality crop
WINNIPEG, Man. – The Canadian Wheat Board expects this year’s Prairie wheat crop will be similar in size to the 2010 crop, but if the harvest goes well over the next couple of weeks the quality should be significantly higher than last year. “We’re hoping to see a return to normal quality profiles for the […] Read more
Manitoba harvest season lacks golden glow
This September will be vastly different from previous Septembers for Rob Pettinger, who grows canola, wheat and other crops on 2,200 acres of land near Elgin, Man. This year, Pettinger won’t be spending hours inside a combine cab and he won’t spend sleepless nights worrying about the weather. He has only 150 acres of crop […] Read more
More blight found in Manitoba potatoes
Two more cases of late blight have been confirmed in Manitoba, and the risk of the disease developing in other potato fields is high, says a potato specialist with the Manitoba government. The province says two potato plant samples that were sent to Manitoba Agriculture’s crop diagnostic lab came back positive for late blight Aug. […] Read more
Farmer group reaches out to urban consumers
Keystone Agricultural Producers has launched advertisements in Winnipeg to inform urban consumers that most of their grocery bill doesn’t go into farmers’ pockets. The transit bus ads, which will run until the middle of September, show a piece of bread that is missing a small corner of the slice. The morsel of bread represents the […] Read more
Fertilizer to climb, gradually
Farmers should prepare for higher fertilizer prices, but nothing like they experienced in 2008. The latest crop production estimates from the United States Department of Agriculture will likely push nitrogen prices higher during the next couple of months, says a fertilizer industry analyst. But in the longer run, prices won’t jump rapidly like they did […] Read more
