Roberta Rampton

A new Manitoba company will spend $1.4 million to try to tap into emerging American interest in feeding flax to animals. Investors are taking a big risk, said Clayton Manness of Man Agra Capital Inc., who found 10 investors to start Prairie Flax Products Inc. “Not only is this an upstart business, it’s moving into […] Read more

The prognosis is in. The Asian flu is more than a case of economic sniffles. It has infected currencies around the world and inflated the blood pressure of exporters counting on strong demand from the Pacific Rim. A University of Manitoba economist estimates it will take five years before the financial remedies for the Asian […] Read more

A prominent farm tax planning company wants the Federal Court of Canada to rule on a controversial clawback of close to $4 million from a safety net program. Farm Business Consultants Inc. has filed an application for judicial review of the point of sale guidelines of the Net Income Stabilization Account program. Under the guidelines, […] Read more

George Horvath wouldn’t normally raise a fuss about losing $120. But this time, it’s the principle of a government clawback that concerns the Leross, Sask., farmer. The Net Income Stabilization Account program audited Horvath’s 1996 statements and found he had overstated his net income by including the gross sales figure from his grain elevator tickets. […] Read more

Last Tuesday, Mike Walton was taking a breather from contracting beans with Manitoba farmers. There has been intense interest in beans this year. Growers started signing up to grow navy beans in the fall, when contract prices went as high as 30 cents per pound and the low Canadian dollar was giving an extra boost […] Read more

Tepid price prospects for cereals, peas and even canola have some farmers seeing red. Red lentils, that is. Lentils may be a popular option in farmers’ seeding plans this year, particularly the red types. Last year’s lentil crop moved quickly and attracted strong prices, especially compared to peas, said Jim Rempel of Saskatchewan Wheat Pool’s […] Read more

The model year of a piece of farm machinery should be a black-and-white issue. But it’s not uncommon for farmers to find they’ve bought equipment older than they thought. Provincial governments across the Prairies are inconsistent in how they deal with the issue. Terry Keller, president of the Canada West Equipment Dealers Association, was not […] Read more

Grade 12 students looking for free post-secondary education might want to steer dinner table conversation toward weeds, chemicals and crop rotations. A group of weed researchers, hoping to get farm families to talk about the problem of herbicide resistance, is putting up $16,000 in scholarships for essays on the subject. Weeds that learn to survive […] Read more

As they sweep their way across Manitoba, seven curlers hope to come up with a game plan for the sport for the next century. The task force – long a favored structure of governments looking to “hurry-hard” to solve problems – has hit the sport of curling. It’s led by the publisher of Manitoba and […] Read more

A program designed to allow farmers to quickly withdraw money during tough times from the Net Income Stabilization Account failed to attract much interest in 1998. Only 1,600 Canadian farmers took advantage of the interim withdrawal program, receiving $32.3 million from their accounts. When the farm income crisis emerged last fall, the NISA administration had […] Read more