Winnipeg’s Farm Business Communications picked up 11 of 44 national awards for writing and photography Saturday at the Canadian Farm Writers Federation’s annual conference in Edmonton.
Farm Business Communications, publishers of Country Guide, Grainews, Canadian Cattlemen, the Manitoba Co-operator, Alberta Farmer Express, Horses All and this website, earned the awards for work submitted to the CFWF’s panels of judges, which included journalists, professors and communicators in various mainline and agricultural media.
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Country Guide associate editor Gord Gilmour won the gold Dick Beamish award for best press feature for “Young Turk” (March 9, 2009, page 24), a profile of Regina pulse-crop trader Murad Al-Katib and his company’s expanding business.
Former Guide associate editor Andrew Douglas won bronze in the same category for his feature “Venture cap” (Aug. 25, 2008, page 12) on farmers seeking non-farming investors to share the risk and rewards of the business. The same article earned Douglas a bronze for monthly press reporting.
Country Guide contributor Gerald Pilger earned the gold Frank Jacobs award for best press column for “The gaping hole in farm marketing” (February 2009, page 8).
Dave Bedard, managing editor of the Manitoba Co-operator, won the gold O.R. Evans award for best press editorial for “Policy plonk” (Sept. 18, 2008, page 4).
Bedard, also the news editor for this site, shared the gold Henry Heald award for best World Wide website with Chris Johnston and Dimos Zarkadas of Farm Business Communications’ sister firm, Toronto-based Business Information Group, for their work on AGCanada.com, a portal site for all the company’s publications as well as farm news and other information.
Winnipeg freelance writer Gord Leathers, writing for the Grainews-sponsored pre-seeding magazine Wheat Oats and Barley, earned two silver awards for technical feature writing and monthly press reporting, for his articles “Line of scrimmage” and “Genetic lottery.”
Country Guide editor Tom Button earned the bronze Peter Lewington award for technical feature writing for “When parents become bankers” (August 2008, page 30).
In the feature photograph category, photographer Kevin Hogarth earned silver for the Country Guide photo “Disconnected,” in the feature “Can the West solve its railway mess…?” (October 2008, page 23).
Manitoba Co-operator reporter Allan Dawson won bronze in the same category for “Sclerotinia assessment,” which accompanied his article “Time to assess sclerotinia risk in canola” (July 10, 2008, page 7).
The Saskatoon-based Western Producer, also owned by Farm Business Communications’ parent firm, Glacier Ventures International, earned six writing and photography awards at the same event.
The CFWF’s 2010 conference is scheduled for Sept. 29 to Oct. 3 in Moose Jaw, Sask.
