Roberta Rampton

WINNIPEG – Paternalistic attitudes are par for the course at the Canadian Wheat Board, according to two groups who made presentations to the Western Grain Marketing Panel here last week. Officials from the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association and United Grain Growers told panelists farmers are well-educated and have lots of marketing experience from non-board […] Read more

BRANDON, Man. – Looking to diversify? Start talking. Brian Olsen believes farmers need strong social relationships with their families and neighbors to have the self-esteem it takes to make major changes. “Sometimes we get so caught up having to make this payment or that payment … that we forget what life’s all about,” said Olsen, […] Read more

WINNIPEG (Staff) – For all those who have ever wondered what happens to their wheat, the Canadian Wheat Board has put together 200 answers. A new cookbook features recipes for food containing wheat, from the humble banana bread to the more exotic Spanish almond torte santiago. The board recently launched Wheat Foods of the World, […] Read more

WINNIPEG (Staff) – The Manitoba Egg Producers marketing board is looking at changing its regulations to allow farmers to increase the amount of eggs they sell or work with neighbors to run operations more efficiently. Frank Friesen, a board member whose Gretna henhouse was built in 1969, said farmers have to reduce their costs because […] Read more

LYLETON, Man. – A border run near here March 11, designed to protest the Canadian Wheat Board as a single-desk seller of grain, attracted several dozen farmers sympathetic to the cause. The group trucked barley belonging to Andy McMechan, a Manitoba farmer facing charges stemming from his past border crossing incidents, the most recent occurring […] Read more

WINNIPEG – Ross Ramage cracks a smile as he recalls how he used a truckload of eggs to make a constitutional point in 1971. British Columbia had set up interprovincial barriers to eggs. Manitoba egg producers and B.C. supermarkets believed the laws were unconstitutional. So Ramage drove all weekend, picking up fellow Manitoba producer Bob […] Read more

WINNIPEG – Ted McCaffrey is living a rancher’s nightmare. Over the next three weeks, his herd of about 240 cattle will be destroyed because 13 of them have tested positive for tuberculosis. “It’s a devastating thing,” said McCaffrey, who lives in south-central Manitoba, near Altamont. Agriculture Canada has spent the past 20 years working to […] Read more

WINNIPEG – Despite opposition from farmers and animal rights groups, the provincial government managed to capture 117 elk in northwestern Manitoba’s Swan River Valley last month. Bob Carmichael, spokesperson for the natural resources department, said most of the elk are being held at a game farm near Grunthal, Man. They will be sold later this […] Read more

BRANDON, Man. – Most farmers see red when elk eat their hay and snowmobilers zoom over fields seeded with winter cereals. But Bob McNabb sees green. He believes there’s a way for communities to make money and keep themselves alive if they start to market the natural resources found on farmland. “It seems to me […] Read more

WINNIPEG – There’s a good chance rivers in southern Manitoba will spill over their banks again this spring. The provincial government released its first flood outlook last week. The province’s natural resources minister Albert Driedger said his department is planning for the possibility of major floods. There’s a lot of snow, between 150 and 200 […] Read more