BLUMENORT, Man. – For farm parents wondering if that toy tractor is really worth $79.95, it turns out that playing with farm toys does affect kids. “When I was a kid that’s all I did was play with farm machinery. Set up farmyards and park everything and just play and play and play,” said Tim […] Read more
Robert Arnason
Stories by Robert Arnason
Public flocks to livestock open house
It’s not easy to explain a year’s worth of research in 13 minutes, but agricultural scientists at the University of Manitoba recently gave it the old college try. On Sept. 25, the National Centre for Livestock and the Environment (NCLE) hosted its first open house at the university’s Glenlea Research Station 15 kilometres south of […] Read more
Manitoba passes law banning new hog barns
A recent rally to protest a Manitoba law that bans hog expansion in much of the province didn’t produce the usual noise that typifies demonstrations. Instead, the 200 producers gathered at the legislature wore long faces and listened to somber speeches, looking and sounding like a eulogy for the province’s hog industry. Only hours after […] Read more
U.S. winter wheat acreage in doubt
By the end of this week American farmers will have seeded about half their winter wheat. The question for markets is how many acres will they seed. Kansas remains the heartland of U.S. wheat production, but in recent years the crop has lost ground to corn and soybeans across the state, says a professor of […] Read more
Northern oilseed heads to U.S. deep South
It’s a fact of life. Whenever you try something new or different, skeptics will line up to offer opinions on why it’ll never work. But Virginia producer Korey Snead isn’t listening to the skeptics. “I’m the first one in the county to grow any type of rapeseed,” said Snead, who will seed 20 acres of […] Read more
Carbon tax changes greeted coolly
After reviewing Stephane Dion’s changes to the Green Shift, Glenn Blakley, president of the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan, still believes that farmers are getting the nasty end of the stick. “It’s absolutely unacceptable to the farmers of Saskatchewan, even with the changes,” said Blakley. “Modified slightly is not going to improve what is overall […] Read more
Saudi Arabia bets on giant farm for its food
A Saudi Arabian plan to establish massive farms, perhaps as large as 247,000 acres, in places like Sudan, Ukraine or Kazakhstan, is not a threat to global trade, says a University of Saskatchewan professor. But it is an indicator that the basic rules of economics are often ignored. Or irrelevant. “What’s interesting to me is […] Read more
Manitoba’s Interlake farmers diving for crops
Farmers in the Interlake region of Manitoba are doing whatever it takes to harvest their flooded crops, even if it means spending $150,000 on tracked equipment. On Aug. 21 and 22, more than 100 millimetres of rain fell on the cropland surrounding Arborg, 100 kilometres north of Winnipeg. The downpour soaked fields already saturated by […] Read more
Farmers’ share of food bill 27 percent
If a family of four spends $186.22 per week on groceries, what portion of that cash makes it back to the farm? The answer, according to the Keystone Agricultural Producers, is $50.28, which works out to a 27 percent share of the family’s grocery bill. Ian Wishart, KAP president, announced these numbers in Winnipeg Aug. […] Read more
Record wheat harvest will bolster world stocks
World wheat stocks will bounce back sharply in the 2008-09 crop year, according to the International Grains Council, returning to the highest level since 2002-03. In its Aug. 29 grain market report, the IGC predicted stocks of 151 million tons at the end of 2008-09, up 28 million tons from last year. Thanks primarily to […] Read more
