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
The business of being young
Ryan Boyd believes regenerative agriculture is the right strategy to get him off the expansion treadmill
Reading Time: 5 minutes About 10 years ago, Ryan Boyd came to his father Jim with some new ideas, and Jim knew it was time to listen. Ryan talked about a new strategy, adopting regenerative and sustainable approaches in order to enhance their productivity. “Dad was more than willing to try something else,” Ryan says. “He’d always believed the […] Read more
New weed garden to help sharpen identification skills
Funds remaining from former zero-till research farm will support a spot to see more than 80 of the province’s weed species
Reading Time: 2 minutes It’s been said a weed is but an unloved flower, but now weeds have a garden of their own in WestMan. That’s important because sometimes it can be hard to tell some weed species apart, and control methods can be vexingly target-specific. That makes it important to know just what you’re dealing with, and is […] Read more
Foraging for better soils
If you aren’t growing forages, can you really say you’re farming sustainably?
Reading Time: 4 minutes The soil has its own perspective, says soil scientist Mario Tenuta, which explains why in Western Canada, where intensive farming has “only” been going on for 100 years, our soils are actually still young. “Our soils are not mature, compared to places like Europe or Africa,” Tenuta says. Over the last 50 years of farming, […] 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
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
Crop pest scouts may gain from ‘app’lied knowledge
Insect ID is a challenge — but Prairie entomologists say there will soon be an app for that, and a whole lot more
Reading Time: 7 minutes One of the most challenging aspects of crop protection will always be the flying, crawling and chomping critters that show up every season, hoping to take a bite out of your profits. There are a lot of them, they can be hard to tell apart, and wind and weather can determine if insects arrive in […] Read more
The long-term battle of fighting crop diseases
Fighting crop disease isn’t a single-season job — you’ve got to be in it for the long haul and protect and maintain the capacity to do the work
Reading Time: 7 minutes In the winter of 1820, farmers at the embryonic Red River Settlement, at what is now Winnipeg, faced disaster after their seed grain was destroyed. The colony had dabbled in wheat production for the previous few years, but with little success. It was make-or-break time for the cold-hardened and dispossessed Scotsmen who had migrated via […] Read more
Location, location
The Spenst family are farmers first, but with a farm that extends right to the store counter
Reading Time: 8 minutes When Garry Spenst and his sons, Paul and Garreth, heard that the Real Canadian Superstore was coming to Winkler, Man. they took the biggest gamble of their lives. The family paid $100,000 to buy the lot right next door. Soon, they were building their family-owned retail meat store, Spenst Brothers Premium Meats, a project that […] Read more
Head of G3 promises to shake up Canada’s grain industry
Karl Gerrand thinks high-speed logistics are the answer to moving grain. But will his competitors play nice?
Reading Time: 7 minutes If there’s one thing Karl Gerrand understands, it’s that Canada’s newest grain company can’t afford to be just another “me too” operator. Gerrand is heading up Global Grain Group, or G3 as it has quickly been dubbed in the business, a phoenix arising from the ashes of the former Canadian Wheat Board with the backing […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
