Roberta Rampton

Major lenders don’t expect the new farm income assistance program to help many farmers. When asked how much the Agricultural Income Disaster Assistance program will help farmers this year, the manager of lending services for Credit Union Central in Manitoba replied, “I don’t think an awful lot, quite frankly.” Art Budd said the program does […] Read more

Cynicism about the new farm income assistance program ran rampant last week as more farmers began to work through the application forms. Bob Friesen, president of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, said the group wants the government to allow farmers to include their losses when calculating how much their income dropped this year. Friesen said […] Read more

Missed payments? Bad credit history? Problems getting an operating loan this spring? In this time of poor commodity prices, people in the business of brokering private money at high interest rates say farmers are their main source of business. The money comes with hefty fees attached: Commissions for the lenders; commissions for the brokers; and […] Read more

Hog producers need to get over their reluctance to use forward contracts and work with other producers to chart their own price destiny. And signing long-term supply contracts with processors may not be a good risk management strategy, said Walt Hackney, head of a company that markets hogs for independent American producers. “You’ve got to […] Read more

Farmers in western Manitoba and eastern Saskatchewan who plan on planting barley seed they harvested last fall should watch for germination problems. The region was prime breeding ground for Cochiobolus sativus, the pathogen that causes spot blotch, said the head of cereal diseases at Agriculture Canada’s Winnipeg research centre. Andy Tekauz said the fungi, which […] Read more

Manitoba Pork Marketing Co-op Inc. has signed a long-term agreement to supply Berkshire-derived hogs for Japanese markets. “It’s another alternative, another option,” said Perry Mohr, agency manager. He said hogs meeting the specifications will fetch a premium of $18 per head. Springhill Farms, a hog processor at Neepawa, Man., secured the markets and will buy […] Read more

The University of Manitoba will soon be home to a unique $3.8 million grain handling and storage research centre. The new 15,000 sq. foot centre will include a full-sized multiple-bin grain handling system, as well as equipment agricultural engineers might require for work in the area, said Digvir Jayas. The federal government’s Canada Foundation for […] Read more

Farmers have snapped up the $25 million in loans offered by the Manitoba government to help farmers through the cash crunch. And there are signs the demand for producer recovery loans will exceed the original offering by at least 25 percent. Farmers have swamped the Manitoba Agricultural Credit Corp. with a second wave of applications […] Read more

A “clearly unethical and morally reprehensible” scheme to split votes in rural ridings in the 1995 provincial election made Manitoba headlines last week. But it wasn’t easy to find rural people to comment on former judge Alfred Monnin’s conclusions in his inquiry into election infractions. Ray Bernier, a farmer from Fisher Branch, Man., said the […] Read more