Roberta Rampton

If there was one bright spot in the oat market last week, it was that Can-Oat Milling expanded its flaking operations at its plant in Portage la Prairie, Man. The $3.5 million expansion should give farmers the assurance that Can-Oat will be in the market for the long term, said the company’s executive vice-president. “We’ve […] Read more

Auditors from a government safety net program have so far recovered more than $1 million from prairie farmers who included increased freight bills as part of their 1996 grain sales. A spokesperson for the Net Income Stabilization Account said the government expects to recover another $2 million by the end of the calendar year. Reg […] Read more

Fusarium headblight reared its ugly, shrivelled head in more parts of Manitoba and Saskatchewan this year. While yields were hurt slightly more in 1998 than last year, officials are thanking hot harvest weather for drying up many quality problems associated with the disease. “When it was hot and humid, everyone was thinking that this was […] Read more

The first barley off combines in Western Canada tends to have the lightest test weights. But this year, there seem to be more reports than usual of light barley coming off fields. With harvest 15 to 25 percent complete last week, analyst Greg Kostal of Pro Farmer Canada said it’s too early to ring any […] Read more

Hot and dry harvest weather should be some comfort to farmers who fought to get the crop off during the past few years, says Paul Cassidy. But that’s about the best thing the Calgary analyst with Mitcon, Inc. can say about the barley market. Cassidy believes few farmers forward-sold their barley earlier this year at […] Read more

United Grain Growers expects a good worldwide harvest of its edible flax oil crop in its fifth year of commercial solin production. “We’re beginning to reap the benefits of working in partnership with a select group of farmers to ensure a steady supply of linola for our end users,” said Ken Mudry, the company’s linola […] Read more

Speaking quietly in the language of weather forecasters, James Cummine and Suzanne D’Amours pour over models of patterns from the earth’s atmosphere, generated from a computer in Montreal. Outside, it’s hot and humid, with a mix of sun and cloud. But the meteorologists inside Environment Canada offices are as in touch with what’s happening in […] Read more

Chewing on the end of a coffee stir stick, Bob Cooke rapidly interprets dots, dashes, commas and squiggles to mean scattered showers with normal to warmer temperatures for Big Sky, Mont. It’s 10 a.m., and Cooke has already created extended forecasts for a score of small weekly newspapers from Eakley, Okla., to Blanco County, Tex., […] Read more

BRANDON, Man. – A few years ago, Robert Krentz thought he had his niche in the cattle business all figured out. Krentz, who runs about 6,700 acres near Grunthal, Man., had a large Simmental-Angus cow-calf operation, a good-sized feedlot and a booming business in selling replacement heifers in the fall. “I had fat cows, I […] Read more

TEULON, Man. – Bob Adamson runs his fingers over the flowering heads of a lush, chest-high timothy hay crop. It’s a perfect summer day in a nearly perfect field and the export hay buyer can’t cap his enthusiasm about the potential for the forage in Manitoba. The crop started out facing dry conditions this year, […] Read more