The chief strategy officer for CWB says the agency stands by its controversial ad depicting a cowgirl stuck on a fence, saying most people like it. "We’ve got more feedback than I ever expected," said Dayna Spiring about the ad that has been running in farm newspapers in recent weeks. Spiring acknowledged there have been […] Read more
CWB says controversial ad met its objective
Man. beef processor moves on federal upgrade
If Calvin Vaags has his way, Manitoba will have a federally inspected ruminant slaughter plant capable of handling 1,000 head per week up and running within a year. After three years of preparation, work has started on a $13 million expansion at Plains Processors, a small processing plant with a capacity of 80 head per […] Read more
From Ethiopia: Aid agencies focus on helping others to help themselves
It was a gift with strings attached, but that was just fine with Bekelech Basa. The single mother of six children from this small community about five hours southwest of Addis Ababa was given a goat on the condition that she give up its first-born kid. It’s just one example of how aid is changing. […] Read more
In Ethiopia: Pivotal to survival, donkeys get no respect
If author Anna Sewell were alive today, chances are she’d be writing a follow to her best-selling novel Black Beauty about the plight of Addis and Ababa — donkeys in Ethiopia. Her 1877 story about a horse raised awareness of the inhumane treatment of horses in England and sold 50 million copies worldwide. It is […] Read more
In Ethiopia: Agricultural growth a multifaceted challenge
With nearly 50 per cent of Ethiopia’s GDP rooted in agriculture, it goes without saying that growing the industry is its best short-term hope of boosting the economy. After all, between 80 and 90 per cent of Ethiopians farm for a living. It has the highest per capita density of cattle in Africa and is […] Read more
In Ethiopia: Conservation gospel falls on fertile soil
A row of derelict tractors on an abandoned state farm is a fitting reminder that industrialized agriculture has a checkered future in this populous East African country. With their faded red paint, gutted engines and rotting tires gradually being swallowed by the prickly underbrush, these 1970s-vintage symbols of progressive agriculture represent a technology that has […] Read more
In Ethiopia: Too many people, too little land and a changing climate
The highway southwest of Addis Ababa to Wolayto-Soddo is wide and smooth, but there is no such thing in Ethiopia as setting the cruise control and just cruising, as one would expect to do on the wide open Canadian Prairies. With nearly 80 million people, Ethiopia is densely populated and most of its people live […] Read more
In Ethiopia: First impressions of a far-off land
The sun was just peeking above the horizon as the Boeing 777 banked south just over Cairo, Egypt and headed for Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital that serves as the hub for all of Africa. We’d been travelling ahead in time, losing a night as we left Washington, D.C. at around 11 a.m. on Saturday, […] Read more
Video: CWB directors on road ahead of plebiscite deadline
Farmer-elected directors of the Canadian Wheat Board held a series of meetings across the Prairies earlier this month to discuss the implications of the federal government’s plans to end the board’s single desk. Manitoba director Bill Toews told the more than 300 farmers attending the meetings at Oak Bluff, Man., that Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz’s […] Read more
Ugly perennials getting admiring looks
In a back corner of the Ian N. Morrison Research Farm here is a nursery of what most farmers would consider butt-ugly plants with spindly stems, tiny seeds, and weedy characteristics. But they might just be the salvation of grain farming if the impact of climate change falls hard on the Canadian Prairies. The plots […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
