Mbc140320

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debating bill c-18

DISASTER PLANNING NEEDED

Government pushes forward » Pg 27

It can happen here » Pg 28

SERVING MANITOBA FARMERS SINCE 1925 | Vol. 72, No. 12 | $1.75 March 20, 2014 manitobacooperator.ca

Swede midge threat looms over Manitoba canola crops

WGRF asking farmers big funding questions

A deceptively tiny bug can wreak non-stop havoc in canola

Where do farmers want to go with funding research and how do they want to get there?

By Daniel Winters co-operator staff / Brandon

I

f you thought clubroot was scary, get ready for Swede midge — a voracious mosquito-like bug that can wreak havoc with your canola yields. First found in North America in 2000, and has appeared in low numbers in Manitoba in 2007 and 2013, said Julie Soroka, a Saskatoon-based entomologist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. “The most I’ve ever caught is

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See SWEDE MIDGE on page 6 »

By Allan Dawson co-operator staff / selkirk

T

he Western Grains Research Foundation (WGRF), the farmerrun conduit for most of western grain farmers’ investment in agricultural research, wants farmers’ input on future funding and the foundation’s role. “Breeding is a long-term process,” WGRF executive director Gar th Pa t t e r s o n t o l d W i n t e r C e r e a l s Manitoba’s annual meeting March 12. “You have to look 10 or 15 years out. You have to start planning for that now if there are new models out there that farmers want to be involved in.” The WGRF is committed to continuing funding public research until at least 2020, Patterson said later in an interview. “What’s important for producer groups during the next one to two years is to make some decisions and start implementing plans,” he said. “We can’t wait until 2020. There has got to be a planned transition.” Potentially big changes are coming to how the WGRF is funded and how Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), which has received $82 million in WGRF funding since 1995, carries out its research. See WGRF on page 7 »

The Western Grains Research Foundation wants farmers to get involved in its strategic planning process.   photo: ©thinkstock

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