Red River Ex award; Foodgrains gets support
Red River Ex award
Doug Turnbull and Carol Lanz-Turnbull have been named the Red River Exhibition Association’s Farm Family of the Year for 2009.
The Turnbull family, including teenaged sons Ryan and Cody, raise cattle near Binscarth, Man.
Besides their own 24 cow-calf pairs of British crossbred cattle, the Turnbulls custom graze 300 beef cattle. Their 1,150 acres include 50 acres of unimproved or native pasture and 70 acres of cereals.
They have extended their grazing season to March by stockpiling perennial forage and using oats for swath grazing. They have created 15 permanent paddocks from 25 to 125 acres.
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In 2005, the Manitoba Forage Council and Manitoba Agriculture presented the Turnbulls with their Grazier of the Year Award.
Foodgrains gets support
Many producers have experimented with forward selling, but the Picture Butte Canadian Foodgrains Bank Project has turned the tables and helped several producers get involved in forward buying.
The project, which is the eighth for this community, recently sold its barley for the foodgrains bank, even though the crop is still growing on the outskirts of town and isn’t expected to be harvested until September.
Leighton Kolk, a member of the project’s organizing committee, said the 300 tonnes of barley sold for $260.50 a tonne.
The harvest is also expected to generate 400 big round straw bales. Buyers paid an average of $47.38 a bale during the recent North County 4-H Achievement Day.
Kolk said the crop was seeded on time but growth was slowed by cool, wet spring conditions.
He said community support has helped the projects send almost $500,000 to the foodgrains bank. Because the program is supported by the Canadian International Development Agency, the farm-generated revenue is matched 4:1.
Last year, in the midst of cattle industry economic woes, the project raised $132,000.
“I think the people saw the high price of grain last year and recognized that high price would mean more hardships on the hungry,” Kolk said.
“Southern Albertans stepped to the plate to help the hungry.”
