Roberta Rampton

ST. LEON, Man. – There’s a new sound on AndrŽ and Teresa Grenier’s dairy farm. And it’s nothing like the serene mooing of cows in the barn. As Teresa gropes around trying to find her latest exotic pet, an unearthly hiss-screech, like the sound of a possessed wind-up toy, comes from its nest. It’s a […] Read more

WINNIPEG – Farmers who grew canola this year may be rubbing their hands together in glee, but buyers may be clenching their fists to duke it out over tight supplies. Statistics Canada last week confirmed farmers will harvest less than five million tonnes of canola this year. Export buyers want 2.3 million tonnes, and domestic […] Read more

WINNIPEG – Al Kehler will never forget the famine he witnessed first-hand in Ethiopia in 1983-84. But this summer, he saw another kind of hunger in North Korea that worries him almost as much. “The whole country is thin,” said Kehler, who works with the Canadian Foodgrains Bank. “I’ve never been in a country where […] Read more

WINNIPEG – Food entrepreneurs can sometimes lose their way between the farmgate and consumers’ plates. But people who have been down the road before want to help keep would-be food processors on track with a new four-month course. The Food Development Centre in Portage la Prairie, Man., is screening applicants for its Agri-Food Entrepreneurship Certificate […] Read more

WINNIPEG – The pork industry needs a Canadian hog futures contract at the Winnipeg Commodity Exchange, according to a report by Sparks Companies Inc. The U.S.-based futures experts talked to industry players in Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg and Edmonton during the summer. The exchange hired the company to see whether it should look at developing a […] Read more

WINNIPEG – For years, glyphosate-based herbicides have had the reputation of being immune to weed resistance. So while prairie farmers carefully rotate chemicals that kill only certain types of weeds, they often apply non-selective herbicides like Roundup and Touchdown year after year to the same fields. “The most often cited statistic is we’ve been doing […] Read more

WINNIPEG – Pam McMechan has trouble finding words to describe how it felt to see farmers and their families flock to her Lyleton, Man. farm to help with fall work. Since July, her husband Andy has been in jail in Brandon for disobeying a court order to surrender his tractor to Canada Customs and for […] Read more

WINNIPEG – Grain industry representatives who want changes to the Canadian Wheat Board tried to convince Manitoba’s premier last week to become more involved in the grain marketing debate. Gary Filmon on Sept. 23 met local representatives from multinationals like Louis Dreyfus and Continental Grain, independent brokers and floor traders, and the Western Canadian Wheat […] Read more

WINNIPEG – A large hog operation in Manitoba’s central Interlake region faces fines under the Environment Act. Last month, Interlake Purapork, a six-month-old 6,000 hog operation northwest of Riverton, was given common offence notices for altering a lagoon without a permit and overfilling a lagoon. Al Beck, regional supervisor for Manitoba Environment, said he was […] Read more

WINNIPEG – Manitoba’s production of whites, navies, reds, blacks, pintos, kidneys and cranberries amounts to a lot more than a hill of beans. And growers are happy another major Ontario processor has noticed. Hensall District Co-operative, owned by about 4,500 Ontario farmers, recently announced it will buy dry edible beans in Manitoba through Linear Agra, […] Read more