Lower overwintering costs
Neepawa hosts Junior Cattle Producers
New cereals ideal for swath grazing » Pg 13
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august 21, 2014
SERVING MANITOBA FARMERS SINCE 1925 | Vol. 72, No. 34
Small-scale producers want regs re-evaluated Supply management limits and restrictions on advertising were among the concerns By Meghan Mast Co-operator Staff
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roducers attending public consultations on smallscale food production last week had a consistent message — the current system prohibits their success, and food safety rules and regulations need to be re-evaluated. The meetings in Winnipeg, Brandon and Dauphin last week were attended by a diverse group including consumers and local food advocates as well as producers. “A lot of these rules and regulations were written a long time ago and haven’t been adapted for technology,” Rudy Reimer of Watersong Farms at Warren told the meeting in Winnipeg. Current regulations restrict producers of some commodities such as uninspected meat from advertising their products. Producers like Reimer who process chickens on farm can advertise, but only through a sign on their farm gate. Current regulations prohibit these farmers from advertising through websites. “So how do you tell customers?” Reimer said. “Fortunately we’ve been doing this for a lot of years so we have a large consumer base already. But there should be no reason why we can’t advertise our product.” Production restrictions under supply management were another theme at the meeting. Direct sellers are only allowed to produce up to 999 chickens, unless like Reimer, they were grandfathered in before the limitations were made in 1995. He can produce 25,000 chickens.
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Severe clubroot case in northern North Dakota gets Manitoba’s attention This province has clubroot but there could be undetected fields with high spore levels farmers should be looking out for
File PHOTO
By Allan Dawson co-operator staff
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suspected severe case of clubroot just across the border in Cavalier County, North Dakota is a wakeup call for Manitoba farmers. “I’m drawing attention to this because it’s at high levels right there so you can probably expect it’s at high levels close by and there is greater risk in those areas (close to the border),” Angela Brackenreed, the Canola Council of Canada’s Manitoba agronomy specialist said in an interview last week. Thirteen Manitoba fields in 10 rural municipalities have clubroot (Plasmodiophora brassicae), a soilborne disease, which can decimate canola yields, but mostly at low levels.
Clubroot was discovered in North Dakota last fall. But earlier this month a canola field near the border was discovered to have plants with large clubroot galls, which in pictures looks similar to those found in severely clubroot-infected Alberta fields, Brackenreed said. “That would indicate those clubroot spores are at a much higher level than we anticipated and it has been around longer than we anticipated,” she said, but added she hasn’t seen the infected field herself. “This place in North Dakota is very close to the Manitoba border. Manitoba farmers close to the border should be particularly diligent, but as I say, if we look hard enough I assume it’s there in some level in most areas in Manitoba. That’s just an assumption.”
Resistant varieties or not?
That’s why the Canola Council of Canada recommends Manitoba farmers grow clubroot-resistant canola varieties even if they don’t have clubroot. Several varieties are suitable for Manitoba, although seed supplies will vary, Brackenreed said. Anastasia Kubinec, oilseed specialist with Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Development, agrees farmers need to be vigilant, especially in areas where clubroot has been detected. But Kubinec advises farmers not to grow resistant varieties until their fields have tested positive to avoid a breakdown in genetic resistance. “I think farmers should test their soils to see whether or not they have clubSee CLUBROOT on page 6 »
CANOLA: Straight cutting versus swathing » PAGE 9