Reading Time: 2 minutes Improving Canada’s safety net programs are among reappointed federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz’s top priorities, he said in an interview Oct. 31. Removing the Canadian Wheat Board’s (CWB) single-desk marketing authority and creating an open market for barley is too. But Ritz acknowledged the change, which requires legislation, will take finesse since the Conservatives still […] Read more
Gerry Ritz happy to be back in minister’s chair
CWB ballot application form revised
Reading Time: 2 minutes Staff The application form farmers use to get a ballot in the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) director elections has been replaced after a flaw was discovered. Part 1.C of the form says the land listed earlier in the form by an applicant is not listed in the applicant’s CWB permit book. Most of the applicants […] Read more
CWB election candidates finalized
Reading Time: 3 minutes “…when our case goes to court and the judge agrees with us the only remedy for the judge is to overturn the election…” – Stewart Wells Staff Nineteen farmers are running for five Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) directors’ positions this fall in an election many believe will be the most important since CWB governance was […] Read more
The Comox Valley wants farmers
Reading Time: 3 minutes Courtenay, B. C. Vancouver Island’s Comox Valley wants farmers. The local economic development office concluded after extensive analysis the key to the region’s prosperity is attracting more producers and processors. It is even attending trade shows across the West armed with soil maps and other information urging farmers to move here and set up operations. […] Read more
Time to assess sclerotinia risk in canola
Now is the right time for canola growers to assess their crops for susceptibility to sclerotinia. Fields considered at high risk should ideally be sprayed with a fungicide at 30 per cent bloom. Where germination was uneven due to the cool, dry spring, flowering will be uneven too. Under those conditions farmers should consider a […] Read more
Flea beetles are now out there: CCC
Now’s the time to scout canola fields for flea beetles, says Derwyn Hammond, the Canola Council of Canada’s Manitoba agronomy specialist. Fields thinned by frost May 27, or struggling because of the cool, dry spring, are especially vulnerable. “In stands that have been thinned out that’s going to focus that flea beetle population on a […] Read more
“Pop-up” effect may help stretch P budgets
Facing rising phosphate prices, Prairie farmers who have routinely applied 30 to 40 pounds of phosphorus an acre each year may be able to cut back to 20 pounds this spring, or even altogether, one Manitoba soil scientist suggests. With prices not expected to get much cheaper until new mines come on line, farmers are […] Read more
Still too early in Manitoba for soybeans
As eager as farmers may be to do so, it’s still too cold to plant soybeans in Manitoba. “Mother Nature is telling me it’s not time to plant (soybeans),” Bruce Brolley, Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives’ pulse crop specialist, said in an interview Friday. “In addition to the cold soil temperature, the grass isn’t […] Read more
Firing may show new CWB stance on barley: MCO
Observers of the Canadian Wheat Board say a vote by the CWB’s directors on the firing of one of its vice-presidents may show an important shift in their willingness to defend single-desk marketing of Prairie barley, the Manitoba Co-operator reports in its Feb. 7 issue. The decision last week to axe Deanna Allen, the CWB’s […] Read more
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