Roberta Rampton

Manitoba agriculture minister Harry Enns has found himself on the horns of a dilemma because of would-be elk ranchers without permits. Elk ranching became legal in the province Feb. 1, when regulations were published. But part of those rules included what some have been calling an amnesty period for people who have been holding elk. […] Read more

BRANDON, Man. – Planning paths in fields will become more of a priority as precision farming becomes more popular. A North Dakota farmer who swears by tram lines says farmers who want to spray their fields several times a season will want to have a visual reference in fields to make the job easier. “It’s […] Read more

BRANDON, Man. – He probably won’t ever feed them or haul them to market, but hogs are becoming an important part of Jim Hargreaves’ dairy and grain operation. In the past year, farmers like him in western Manitoba have been mulling over ways to get more large hog barns on their side of the province. […] Read more

BRANDON, Man. – High pork prices may make investing in hog barns look like a licence to print money. But speakers at a recent seminar warned would-be investors that the business is cyclical with a lot of risks. John Corbey, a farm management specialist with the provincial government, said demand, exchange rates and feed prices […] Read more

Farmers could take a lesson from Mohammed Ali; he who floated like a butterfly one moment and stung like a bee the next to keep his opponents off balance. Weeds, too, can be kept on the defensive by constantly rotating crops, seeding dates and herbicides. About 1,100 producers at the Saskatchewan Soil Conservation direct seeding […] Read more

TREHERNE, Man. – About five years ago, people in this central Manitoba town lost money when an organ factory broke its promise to locate here. So when a group of farmers went knocking on doors to find investors for a 600-sow, farrow to finish hog barn, they did things right. “Everybody wanted to know and […] Read more

The hog business is back to normal in Manitoba after a week-long impasse when most of the pro-vince’s pigs went to packers in Alberta, Saskatchewan and the United States. The agency that sells most of the hogs in the province agreed to return to an old pricing formula until Feb. 24 so it could continue […] Read more

LA RIVIERE, Man. – The stars are out in full brilliance as Beth and Larry Thompson stroll across their yard to check their herd of cows, which are placidly munching on hay. It’s calving season. But on the Thompson farm, that means getting a full night’s sleep. “I don’t understand any cattleman in his right […] Read more

BRANDON, Man. – Manitoba farmers may start finding the hog feeder barn in their own backyard a more attractive home for wheat and barley than the export market. Normand Mabon, a farm management specialist with Manitoba Agriculture crunched numbers using a computer model and found the feeder barn theoretically would have outperformed the export market […] Read more

Farmers from Neepawa, Man. are sending out an S.O.S. from their little island of rail tracks. It’s a call of distress over the poor service they say their two grain elevators are getting from CN Rail. The elevators are on a half-kilometre of track owned by CN. But for CN to get to the island, […] Read more