Roberta Rampton

Flanked by a dozen supporters, Dave Bryan appeared in a Winnipeg courtroom last week to appeal his conviction a year ago of exporting barley without a Canadian Wheat Board licence. At the end of a day of constitutional argument, all but an hour coming from Bryan’s lawyer Art Stacey, the three Manitoba Court of Appeal […] Read more

Manitoba’s agriculture minister was to meet with some of his bureaucrats this week to tell them to ease up on farmers applying for emergency loans. When Harry Enns announced the loans program just before Christmas, he said the loans from the Manitoba Agricultural Credit Corporation would be readily available. “I want it (the loan) made […] Read more

A third of the grain that American farmers ship by rail incurs a higher freight rate than what Canadian farmers are accustomed to. Competitive grain freight rates in the United States are $25 to $30 (Cdn) per 1,000 ton-miles, similar to Canadian rates, said Terry Whiteside, a lobbyist for U.S. shippers. But 35 percent of […] Read more

As egg production rapidly expands in Manitoba, cracks are beginning to appear over the direction of the industry. In the past year, farmers have seen the birth of two of the largest egg barns in Canada, with another large barn under construction. Recently, a group of 22 egg producers went public with concerns about the […] Read more

A new type of laying hen has finally come to roost in Manitoba. More than 40,000 hens are now laying eggs exclusively for processors, who crack them to make dried and liquid bulk products. By summer, they’ll be joined by another 100,000 hens for the processing market, said Harold Froese, chair of Manitoba Egg Producers. […] Read more

The new year started off with a chorus of peeps on Triple S Farms at Altamont, Man. On Jan. 6, the farm, owned by brothers George, Michel and Odiel Sanders, got its first shipment of day-old chicks, destined to become the first flock of unique laying hens. It is these hens, and the eggs they […] Read more

Albert Lynch is “a man of conscience,” but he was lawfully dismissed from United Grain Growers, according to an adjudicator appointed to hear his complaint. Bryan Schwartz dismissed Lynch’s complaint after hearing about why he was fired from his job at Proven Seeds’ canola plant in Souris, Man., in February 1998. Lynch refused to blend […] Read more

A dead elk found by hikers in Riding Mountain National Park last fall has revived worries about bovine tuberculosis in Manitoba. The elk died of injuries from fighting during the mating season, but in mid-December, routine tests done by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency found the bull was infected with tuberculosis. George Luterbach, head of […] Read more

An inefficient grain handling and transportation system is costing Saskatchewan farmers hundreds of millions of dollars a year relative to their counterparts in the United States. A study prepared by a Canadian consultant and a U.S. academic concluded that wheat and barley farmers in Saskatchewan have significantly lower net revenues than growers south of the […] Read more

GARSON, Man. – A Manitoba engineering firm may have found a way to keep a lid on the problem of malodorous manure stored in lagoons. More than 50 hog farmers and industry representatives showed up at the farm of John and Leanne Van Aert recently to check out a black, tarp-like cover over a lagoon. […] Read more