Roberta Rampton

Canola strategists are advising farmers to closely watch basis levels and rallies to find better prices for their oilseed this crop year. Opportunities for prices beyond the $370 per tonne level may be relatively rare with ample world supplies of oilseeds, and a particularly large soybean crop coming off fields in the United States. “I’m […] Read more

Farmers washed out by flooding in the Red River Valley this spring are still waiting to hear what compensation they’ll get from the federal and provincial governments. “I’ve started calling them flood hostages,” said Marcel Hacault, chair of the Manitoba Farm Flood Relief Fund. Since governments signed a $270 million memorandum of understanding four months […] Read more

Farmers may want to sell some of their oats straight off the combine as prices are relatively sweet, compared to abysmal feed barley prices. After bottoming out at averages around $1.40 per bushel in July, oats were trading last week around $1.65 per bu., delivered to the elevator, according to an analyst with Statcom. “But […] Read more

There are three strikes against Canadian prairie spring wheat varieties coming out of combines in Manitoba and eastern Saskatchewan this fall, according to scientists at Agriculture Canada. Fusarium headblight has been cutting yields, especially for CPS varieties. And leaf spot diseases have hit all classes of wheat in the eastern Prairies. But a Cereal Research […] Read more

THE PAS, Man. – There may be fewer days to grow a crop, but the suns shines for longer during each of them. Farmers north of the 53rd parallel in Manitoba seem to be able to find the bright side to their splendid isolation. Two years ago, when fusarium and ergot ran amok in the […] Read more

Farmers near Elie, Man., where Armand LeSann grew up, received sympathy from the townsfolk when crops failed or prices were poor. But when he moved 600 kilometres north to The Pas in 1961, he quickly learned he wasn’t in the Red River Valley anymore. “Out here, still today, they couldn’t care less,” said LeSann. It’s […] Read more

The Carrot Valley is more than 600 kilometres from Winnipeg, but it’s only 500 km to the port of Churchill by rail. Ironically, most of the local elevator’s average annual handle of 25,000 tonnes goes to Vancouver or down the St. Lawrence, according to its assistant manager. Rob Dezall said the elevator usually doesn’t have […] Read more

THE PAS, Man. – It’s 8:30 a.m. and Margareta Markus is flying around the kitchen getting waffles and fresh strawberry jam for a sleepy haying crew. Australian exchange student David Handley rubs his eyes and endures teasing about his first night on the baler. He put up 800 round bales. In this northern farming region, […] Read more

HIGH BLUFF, Man. – Steve Meister can give an hour-long pitch about what he sees as the benefits of hybrid canola. But the communications manager for AgrEvo Canada Inc. is the first to admit that farmers have to see the benefits for themselves before they’ll embrace new, expensive hybrid varieties. “No one’s going to go […] Read more

For more than two years, Manitoba farm leaders have been looking at the palm of agricultural policy and foretelling doom. The life-line of subsidies and safety nets has been cut short, they warned farmers. Adapt and diversify now, or face uncertain destiny in cycles of low prices. Now, farmers across the Prairies are seeing the […] Read more