Roberta Rampton

A little bit of the farm came to the edge of the city last week as Manitoba farmers and agricultural businesses put on a show for their urban counterparts. It was the industry’s first try at an event called Heart of the Continent Farm and Food Days. Equal parts tradition and innovation, the event provided […] Read more

Some farmers who forward-sold oats this year may be finding themselves in a bit of a bind. Too much rain hit fields at the wrong time in early September in prime oat-growing areas of Manitoba and parts of eastern Saskatchewan. Oats in the swath and even some in the stand took on water, causing staining, […] Read more

The agriculture industry must pay attention to the ABCs of the new business world if it hopes to be successful in the future, according to American. futurist Lowell Catlett. Catlett, who teaches at the University of New Mexico, told the annual meeting of the Crop Protection Institute Sept. 18 that three factors will drive business […] Read more

Grain industry stalwart James Richardson International has weathered virtually all the storms in Canadian agricultural history. The grain company, which started in Kingston, Ont., in 1857, helped open the Canadian Prairies for agriculture, noted JRI president Curt Vossen. But nothing could have prepared the company for the complex and rapid changes taking place in the […] Read more

MIAMI, Man. – It’s 8:30 on a brilliant September morning, the kind of day farmers need to get the crop off. Garry Duncan is delivering son Thomas, who is almost three, to a sun-filled bright new building tucked behind the calm residential streets of this central Manitoba town. The Duncans rely on the Miami Children’s […] Read more

Steve Ashton admits that walking into Lloyd’s of London’s building complex a few blocks from the historic Tower Bridge was a daunting experience. But the Manitoba highways minister said his trip to the British capital last month to meet with three senior Lloyd’s underwriters was productive. Ashton, a northern Manitoba MLA and longtime advocate for […] Read more

GRUNTHAL, Man. – In the last hot dog days of summer, a week before classes resumed, Colten and Dextyn Fehr were busy catching toads. At ages 10 and six, the boys are at the age when they love tagging along with their dad while he works in the family’s hog barns. The barns are somewhat […] Read more

After wet weather and humidity resurrected fusarium head blight disease, Manitoba farmers are calling for permanent registration of a controlling fungicide. Keystone Agricultural Producers, the provincial farm lobby group, has asked the Pest Management Regulatory Agency to permanently register Folicur 432F for wheat. Folicur was granted emergency registration for Manitoba and Saskatchewan in the springs […] Read more

Don Fyk was hurriedly driving to a wedding reception in Dauphin, Man., from his home in Garland, Man., when he took a fortuitous wrong turn. Near Sifton, Man., beside a rail line that he and other community members have long fought to keep in the ground, lay a pile of salvaged rail that had been […] Read more

Brandon’s wastewater treatment plant that handles effluent from Maple Leaf’s hog processing facility failed this summer when a power surge disrupted a computer system. But a spokesperson for the city, which owns and operates the treatment plant, said no harm was done to the Assiniboine River during the temporary failure. Robyn Singleton said the city […] Read more