Ron Friesen Archives | Canadian Cattlemen

Grass is a crop too

Just because forage is on marginal land doesn’t mean it should get marginal management, says a recent Beef Cattle Research Council study

By Ron Friesen April 10, 2017

If grain farmers routinely fertilize their crops to get higher yields and profits, why don’t forage producers do the same to their pastures? That question is at the heart of a recent Beef Cattle Research Council study into improving forage yields in Canada. The study notes that while annual crops have seen significant yield increases […] Read more

university of Manitoba forage breeder doug Cattani says there’s not much incentive for private companies to invest in perennial crops for which they can’t sell seed every year.

Crops, Forages

Who will breed the next generation?

Forages aren’t only suffering from a shortage of research dollars, but a shortage of researchers to do the work if the money were available

By Ron Friesen March 15, 2017

See if you can answer these two skill-testing agricultural questions. What is the largest crop in Canada? Which crop has one of the poorest records for funding research and breeding programs? If you answered “forages” to both, you’re right. You’ve also put your finger on a chronic problem in Canada’s forage industry. Statistics show the […] Read more

Forages, Livestock

Forage breeding faces funding challenges

Government has cut back, private companies are not keen on crops that don’t need to be reseeded every year, and you can’t check off sales to farmers’ own livestock

By Ron Friesen April 12, 2016

Forages are Canada’s biggest crop but you wouldn’t know it because of the few resources that go into breeding them. You’d think that, given its size, forage would be a giant in the world of plant breeding. Unfortunately, it’s more of a midget. Canada has only four major publicly funded programs for breeding tame forages, […] Read more

Beef Cattle, Livestock

Tight numbers a concern for livestock marketers

By Ron Friesen September 14, 2015

The bloom may soon come off the rose for record-high cattle prices as economic indicators in the United States suggest a coming slowdown in consumer beef demand. That was the message from commodity market analyst Jerry Klassen to the Livestock Market Association of Canada’s annual convention in Winnipeg earlier this summer. A roaring bull market […] Read more

Features

Brown root rot lurking in alfalfa fields

By Ron Friesen April 23, 2013

A little-known root disease hiding under the Prairie snowpack this past winter could give alfalfa growers a surprise in spring. Weather conditions were ideal for the development of brown root rot, a potentially damaging disease of forage legumes, including alfalfa. Brown root rot is a soil-borne fungal pathogen with the official name Phoma sclerotioides. It […] Read more

Livestock, Markets

Manitoba cattle price insurance in the works

By Ron Friesen April 24, 2011

Hidden in Manitoba Finance Minister Rosann Wowchuk’s 2011-12 budget is a $200,000 allocation for cattle insurance. The Manitoba government has set aside $200,000 for a livestock insurance pilot program for the province’s cattle producers. The allocation is hidden in the 2011-12 provincial budget Wowchuk brought down April 12. The Co-operator learned about it during briefings […] Read more

Livestock

Man. hog farmers pledge sow stall phase-out

By Ron Friesen March 24, 2011

Major and possibly expensive changes lie ahead for Manitoba’s 700 hog producers as the result of a new roadmap for the industry’s future. The Manitoba Pork Council’s plan released last week commits hog farmers to eliminate sow gestation stalls within the next 15 years. “Manitoba Pork commits to encouraging producers to phase out by 2025 […] Read more

Livestock

B.C. humane society protests rodeo calf roping

By Ron Friesen July 18, 2009

When the Manitoba Stampede and Exhibition holds its 46th annual rodeo in Morris through this weekend, one group that won’t be cheering for the cowboys is a Vancouver-based animal welfare organization opposed to one of its main events: calf roping. The Vancouver Humane Society is campaigning to ban calf roping (also called tie-down roping) from […] Read more

Manitoba sunflowers not calling it quits just yet

Canada’s fuel prices to rise after attack in Saudi Arabia

Funds’ canola short position up, for now

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