Roberta Rampton

Hog farmers who sell their pigs through Manitoba Pork have inked a supply arrangement with J.M. Schneider Inc. Other than to say the arrangement is flexible, details on the quantity of hogs the agency will sell the processor were not released for competitive reasons. But both parties stressed their strategic alliance has more to do […] Read more

Farmers planted more canola and special crops than they anticipated earlier this year after strong prices in April and May drew acres away from barley, oats and flax. In a survey released last week, farmers told Statistics Canada they planted 13.3 million acres of canola, up from the 12.8 million acres they were thinking about […] Read more

Justice Willard Estey didn’t ask for it. But in early September, he’ll find on his desk a detailed study from some of the top minds in agricultural economics on the Canadian Wheat Board’s role in grain transportation. Hired by Transport Canada, and paid by Agriculture Canada, six academics and five industry consultants will pick the […] Read more

Prairie farmers likely owe governments more than $3 million after they overstated their 1996 grain sales by about $100 million for the Net Income Stabilization Account program. NISA auditors conducted a preliminary audit in February and found up to 20 percent of producers included freight from elevator to port as part of their grain income. […] Read more

Maple Leaf Foods has cleared the first regulatory hurdle on its sprint toward building a $112 million hog processing plant at Brandon, Man. Manitoba Environment issued the company a licence to construct the plant. But the company must also get licences for the waste treatment plant, operation of the plant, and hydro substation. Environmental groups […] Read more

The hog industry had better build a strong surfboard. Another wave of concern for the environment is building, according to Environics International Ltd., a global market research company. Unless the hog industry develops better community relations and accountability to ride the wave, it may be drowned in the surf when the wave crests in the […] Read more

Western Canada needs a single agency to co-ordinate research funding, say some members of the Barley Development Council. Jim Helm, a barley breeder at the Field Crop Development Centre in Lacombe, Alta., said the research funding process is cumbersome and frustrating. He said researchers sometimes get approval from one funding agency for a priority project, […] Read more

TEULON, Man. – It is a region where old Bombardier ice buggies sit side by side with tractors and combines, where people have always made a living from both fishing and farming. Now, a group of people from the Interlake, which lies between Lake Manitoba and Lake Winnipeg, want to bring the fishing inland and […] Read more

A wastewater treatment company thinks it has a solution to the conundrum of hog manure. Canwest Ecological Systems Ltd. is negotiating with several operations in Manitoba and Alberta to build on-farm treatment plants. The plants would recycle the water used to flush out barns, dry and remove odor from the manure, and in the process […] Read more

Manitoba school-aged children appear to be getting the farm safety message. Norma Alberg, an epidemiologist with Manitoba Labor, has crunched the numbers and found some encouraging trends. While the farm is still a dangerous place for kids, fewer are being killed or hospitalized because of farm-related injuries. A decade ago, kids under 16 accounted for […] Read more