Like many farmers, Bruce Quadrelli is regularly perplexed by government decisions. As an example, Manitoba and federal governments used to offer a program to help producers develop an environmental farm plan. The program was a huge success and popular with farmers, but in March 2008 the Canada-Manitoba Farm Stewardship program was cancelled. The program was […] Read more
Robert Arnason
Stories by Robert Arnason
Producers forage for good feed
Faced with too much rain in the east and not enough moisture in the west, Manitoba’s cattle producers are looking at a poor forage crop across most of the province, says a forage specialist with Manitoba Agriculture. And if growing conditions don’t turn around quickly in the dry southwest, it’s likely that producers will have […] Read more
Oversupply brings diesel prices down
After oil hit a peak of $147 US per barrel last year, energy analysts and speculators predicted that $200 per barrel was inevitable and the emerging economies of China and India would eventually consume all of the world’s oil. The supply-demand balance of oil today looks much different, said Roger McKnight, senior petroleum advisor for […] Read more
Financial woes threaten Man. wind farm plans
Plans to build the largest wind farm in Canada near Letellier, Man., could be in jeopardy. Shares of the Australian company involved, Babcock and Brown Ltd., were delisted from the Australian Securities Exchange June 18 and the company is billions of dollars in debt. Consequently, people in the Rural Municipality of Montcalm, south of Winnipeg, […] Read more
Gardeners bury heirlooms in dirt
CARMAN, Man. – It’s not every day you meet a dog that likes to eat tomatoes. And even more rare is a 260 pound St. Bernard who has a connoisseur’s taste buds for the finest of tomatoes. “Bernie will go straight to the juiciest and tastiest tomato,” said the St. Bernard’s owner, Jessy Friesen, who […] Read more
Couple embraces holistic approach
Binscarth, Man. – When a farm has been in the same family for 126 years, there are signs of each generation’s unique footprint. And back in the early 2000s, it was Doug and Carol Turnbull’s moment to alter the history of their farm in western Manitoba. The husband and wife team chose to plow down […] Read more
Barn fires send insurers running
A rash of fires in Manitoba and other blazes across the country, have people in the insurance industry questioning whether they will continue to offer coverage for those types of buildings. More than 7,500 pigs died last week in southeastern Manitoba when a hog barn went up in flames near the community of Zhoda. The […] Read more
Man. funds flood rebuilding
The Manitoba government has committed to covering most of the rebuilding costs for roads, culverts and bridges damaged by spring flooding. Intergovernmental affairs minister Steve Ashton announced that municipalities would have to pay only $5 per capita of their disaster claim. After that level is reached, the province will assume 100 percent of the costs. […] Read more
Infrared gives crop snapshot
If last year is any indication, measuring the amount of vegetation on cropland is an effective method to estimate spring wheat production in Canada. Last August, the Crop Condition Assessment Program, a Statistics Canada computer model, estimated that Western Canadian farmers would produce 17.8 million tonnes of spring wheat in 2008. In actuality, based on […] Read more
N.D. canola acres hit 12-year low
Canola producers in North Dakota this spring planted the fewest acres the state has seen since 1997. North Dakota farmers seeded 740,000 acres of canola this year, according to the June 30 U.S. Department of Agriculture seeding survey. The highest acreage was in 2002, when they seeded 1.3 million acres. Last year, North Dakota farmers […] Read more
