Reading Time: 3 minutes While many people are focused on the fight to end hunger, Ismail Cakmak is focused on the fight to end hidden hunger. “Hunger is a lack of food and that is related to food security,” Cakmak told participants during a special seminar at the University of Manitoba this summer. “But hidden hunger means lack of […] Read more
Taking fertilizer beyond yield
Plant breeding is the ultimate solution but in the meantime, foliar fertilizer shows promise in reducing micronutrient deficiency
Selling farm-direct to consumers
Small, direct-market farmers are building better business cases for their farms. But will business smarts be enough?
Reading Time: 8 minutes Allison Fenske pulls a reluctant grey cat off her dining room table to make room for her jars of homemade pea-shoot pesto, pickled beets and spicy slices of jicama turnip. She points to the turnips. “Jonathan says he always tells people you can eat them the way you’d eat an apple, and I was like, […] Read more
Is direct-farm marketing an opportunity for larger farms?
Reading Time: 4 minutes The growing gap between consumer demand and the ability of the farm business community to meet that demand presents a dangerous vacuum for small farmers, believes Charlie Touchette, executive director of the North American Farmers’ Direct Marketing Association. It could, he says, become a vacuum that gets filled by corporate entities rather than local producers. […] Read more
Cigi course highlights customer relations
Reliability of Canadian wheat is the theme of Cigi’s annual international program
Reading Time: 4 minutes They come from 16 different countries, but have one thing in common — Canadian wheat. Participants in the 49th annual International Grain Industry Program at the Canadian International Grains Institute, better known as Cigi, came to Canada to learn more about where the grain they buy comes from, how it is grown and how it […] Read more
Construction bosses
Does running a farm mean you’ll be good at starting your own housing subdivision too? Albert Boonstra and Sean Braun are finding out
Reading Time: 11 minutes It’s just after 3:30 in the afternoon when a lumbering orange school bus pulls into the yard at Braun Grain Farms, 20 or so kilometres northeast of Winnipeg. “The kids are pretty spoiled here,” says their mom Kristy Boonstra as they bound off the bus and into the shade of a treed lawn, complete with […] Read more
Cigi coaxing Philippines back to Canadian wheat
The Institute is wooing Filipino millers after a period of poor gluten strength and low protein drove them to American wheat suppliers
Reading Time: 3 minutes For years Darwin Tatel used Canadian wheat at the San Miguel Mill in Batangas, Philippines, but then something changed. “We stopped using CWRS awhile back when we encountered some problems in terms of quality,” said the head miller, who was in Winnipeg to take part in a technical exchange program at the Canadian International Grains […] Read more
Where have all the hog farmers gone?
They’ve gone to Manitoba, where they’re enjoying some good years in the face of a long list of challenges
Reading Time: 9 minutes Despite losing nearly 14,000 pig farmers since 1971, Manitoba still produces more pigs than any other province, accounting for just under a third of Canada’s total pork production, and well over half of its exports. For nearly three decades, Manitoba has had a front row seat on the peaks and valleys of Canada’s hog industry. […] Read more
Ending the moratorium on new hog barns?
Manitoba’s 10-year old ban on new barns means almost half of the province’s pigs still get finished in the U.S.
Reading Time: 2 minutes People aren’t the only thing Manitoba needs more of. A shortage of slaughter pigs continues to be a nagging problem. Maple Leaf’s Brandon facility struggles to keep a second shift operating at capacity, searching for additional hogs to process, while HyLife has gone outside the province to keep its Neepawa plant at capacity. “We are […] Read more
Keeping the soybean cyst nematode at bay
They are tiny world travellers and Manitoba’s Red River Valley could be the next stop on the soybean cyst nematode’s global tour
Reading Time: 4 minutes In the middle of the Ian N. Morrison research farm near Carman, Man., an unlikely scene is unfolding as farmers and agronomists crowd around what looks like an old jam jar. “Careful, we don’t want this to break,” Mario Tenuta stresses, with a bit of a chuckle. But what’s inside the tightly sealed jar is […] Read more
VIDEO: Cooking up good things with pulses
Canned chickpea water substitutes for egg whites in making macarons
Reading Time: < 1 minute While Canada grows copious amounts of pulses, most are exported. Chefs Geoffroy Dextraze and Chef Chris Kopp of Winnipeg’s Prairie Ink Restaurant and Bakery share their experiences developing new pulse recipes for the provincial launch of the International Year of Pulses. The event was put on by the Manitoba Pulse and Soybean Growers and attended by […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
