Significance of soil, water management

The day six inches of rain fell one early July afternoon is etched in my memories of growing up on a southern Manitoba grain farm in the mid-1960s.

Awaiting next stage in biofuels balancing act

There was a lot of mixed messaging over the role agriculture plays in climate change mitigation during the Justin Trudeau era, when the federal government was heavily focused on making the Canadian economy less dependent on carbon-based fuels.

“On the one hand, the federal government, for the last 10 years anyway, has certainly seen our crops as traditional food commodities and has treated their emissions as climate threats,” Grain Growers of Canada executive director Bruce Burrows told a recent webinar discussing Canada’s Clean Fuel Regulation (CFR).

“Yet on the other hand, under CFR, we’re celebrating these exact same crops when they’re turned into fuel, and so … it’s not food or fuel, it’s both.”

The identity crisis was further complicated by Canada’s increasingly testy relationship with its next-door neighbour and largest trading partner.

Mushroom producers face ‘worrying’ duties

Prices may mushroom for American fungi lovers — and the company behind a Manitoba grower is contesting new duties disrupting the industry.

Loveday Mushroom Farms ships roughly 10 million pounds of mushrooms annually from its Oakbank plant to the United States. It accounts for one-fifth of the mushrooms parent company South Mill Champs grows in Canada and sells south of the border.

“We’ve got a good customer base in the U.S. and Canada,” said Lewis Macleod, South Mill Champs chief executive.

But the American base will likely be hit with higher mushroom prices: South Mill Champs plans to pass a new duty to customers, upping the cost of its portabellas and shiitakes.

Balancing act of farm risk-management programs

It’s a long-standing and generally accepted principle of Canadian agricultural policy that farmers need taxpayers’ help countering the unpredictable and wildly fluctuating risks of their operating environment.

Farmers have some measure of control over production choices. Their management can increase yields and reduce reliance on expensive production aids such as fertilizer or pesticides. They can also build an allowance for the unexpected into their game plan, such as seeking off-farm income.

But that can only go so far.

Farmers can’t plan for weather, climate, twists and turns in crop prices, the effect of external forces such as U.S. President Donald Trump’s tantrums or becoming collateral damage in Canadian diplomatic spats with China.

Fertilizer, diesel costs beset farmers

Soybeans are on Jason Rempel’s radar.

The Manitoba farmer has dodged rising nitrogen fertilizer prices — he pre-bought last fall — but if costs continue to climb, he’ll be seeking more soybeans for 2027.

The crop doesn’t require much nitrogen fertilizer, unlike the wheat and corn Rempel is currently spreading across his land near Landmark.

Nitrogen fertilizer prices have jumped 30 to 40 per cent in Western Canada since the United States and Israel attacked Iran earlier this year, according to Farm Credit Canada. Around one-third of global seaborne fertilizer ships through the now-blockaded Strait of Hormuz.

Farm giant’s debt woes everyone’s problem

Rumours had been circulating the virtual coffee shops for months, so news this spring that Saskatchewan-based Monette Farms had sought protection from its creditors wasn’t a shock.

The mega-farm operated by brothers Darryl and Russell Monette obtained protection under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act. With an extension granted this month, it now has access to $90 million to continue to operate and come up with a plan before June 19 for how it will service its debts and stem operational losses in an incredibly challenging environment.

Monette embarked on a massive expansion over the past decade to become what court affidavits describe as “one of the largest private farms in the world” — owning and leasing more than 400,000 acres of farmland and employing about 425 workers.

A labyrinth of 17 related companies and three limited partnerships is spread over four western provinces and several U.S. states. It’s farming activities focus on grain, produce, cattle, seed processing, vegetables and even a winery.

Think Shift appoints new chief executive on ‘AI plus AI’ approach

Rejecting return-to-office mandates, using artificial intelligence and working with more clients in the United States are top priorities for the new leader of a Winnipeg marketing agency that specializes in agriculture.

Think Shift Inc., appointed Charlie Fiordalis as its chief executive officer last month. He replaced Robert Thorston, who served as CEO for seven years before stepping down and joining the company’s finance team.

A marketing veteran who has spent most of his career working in and around New York City, Fiordalis was most recently the head of growth at PMG, a company that works with iconic brands such as Apple, Nike, and Sephora.

The Darien, Conn., resident says he was drawn to Think Shift because the company is “big enough to matter (and) small enough to change.”

Mustard farmers face cross-pollination risk

Genetically modified crops may have gained widespread adoption among farmers since their introduction 30 years ago, but they remain a polarizing force within the farming community.

Because GM technology still struggles to achieve full market acceptance, many farmers reap the benefits at the expense of a few others who lose relatively small but important markets.

For example, nearly 100 per cent of the commercial canola produced in Canada comes from varieties that are herbicide-tolerant, which is most often a result of GMO traits.

Their widespread use makes it impossible for organic farmers to grow canola that is certifiably free of GM contamination, thanks to Prairie winds that move pollen easily from one field to another.

No one-size-fits-all answers on farm

We all complain about sticker price shock at the grocery store, but when it comes to inflation, farmers have been eating at least some of it on our behalf.

Even before the Middle East firestorm broke out Feb. 28, farming was becoming disproportionately expensive.

Manitoba Agriculture extension economist Darren Bond told a webinar this week that compared to five years ago, farmers’ overall costs of production have risen around 50 per cent — well above the general inflation rate of around 20 per cent. Whether buying new equipment, repairing what they have or acquiring more land, they are often faced with double-digit increases annually.

Can they rent their way out of the bind? A farmer hoping to avoid paying a 46 per cent price increase in the cost of a new sprayer will pay 72 per cent more for a rental than they did in 2020.

Ducks Unlimited provides $1-M pasture for farming research

A Manitoba farming research non-profit will have more space to let cattle roam and graze on prairie grasslands — and study how that foraging affects biodiversity — through a partnership with Ducks Unlimited Canada.

On Monday, the conservation organization announced it is providing $1 million worth of land to nearly double the size of the Brookdale Research Farm north of Brandon.

“This expansion of land is going to be an opportunity to do commercial-scale case studies and data collection… and then share it back to producers in a real-world setting,” said Mary-Jane Orr, general manager of Manitoba Beef and Forage Initiatives.

Brookdale Farm — one of two farm stations managed by Beef and Forage Initiatives — typically tested new technology, land-management practices and other farming innovations on a smaller footprint, less than 20 acres at a time. With the addition of the 467-acre Odanah Pasture, the organization will be able to work with farmers at a more true-to-life scale, helping to ease the risk for producers looking to implement new practices with their herds.

Drone application big step in crop protection

It’s been a long time coming, but Health Canada is finally moving forward with a plan that would allow farmers to spray weeds using drones.

The department that oversees Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency has launched a 30-day public consultation process on a proposal to regulate drone applications of pesticides similarly to manned aircraft applications.

The change, if approved, would allow manufacturers whose products are already approved for application by manned aircraft to add application by drones to their product labels without going through the costly and time-consuming process of applying for a label change.

Currently, there are no agricultural pesticide products registered for drone application largely because the current regulations require every product to go through a separate registration process providing supporting data.

Herbicide drama a nightmare for farmers, investors and government

Glyphosate, arguably farmers’ favourite herbicide and the central character in a high-stakes drama now spanning decades, was back in the news this week.

Food-culture extremes reverberate back to farm

The absurdity of our civilization’s extreme relationship with food hit me like a runaway snowboard the other night while watching the Ozempic Olympics in between commercials advertising pizza and french fries.

The relentless marketing, alternately promoting weight-loss support and foods that lean towards making us fat, isn’t aimed at the elite winter athletes strutting their stuff on the world stage in Italy. It’s a safe bet they didn’t achieve the peak of human fitness on a diet of pizza and french fries. It’s equally doubtful they require injections of the GLP-1 class of drugs to help manage their weight.

These athletes deserve our admiration and respect, but to be fair to the rest of us, most working stiffs don’t have the time, drive or resources to devote full-time to the pursuit of extreme fitness.

No, those commercials are aimed at the couch potatoes back home, subjecting us to both temptation and a shortcut to redemption as we bear witness to these feats of human endurance.