Soggy seeding blues
New food regulations
More unseeded acres this year » Pg 3
Processors worry about cost » Pg 34
IN THIS ISSUE:
KAP MANITOBA FARMERS' VOICE MAGAZINE
SUMMER 2014 EDITION The Official Publication of Keystone Agricultural Producers
MEMBER PROFILE
DAN PEN NER Sure and steady brings success
UPOV ’91
• What the legislation proposes to do • What farmers are concerned about
june 5, 2014
SERVING MANITOBA FARMERS SINCE 1925 | Vol. 72, No. 5
Shortcomings remain in grain transport bill The bill is now law, but its effectiveness is in doubt By Alex Binkley cooperator staff
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fter speedy Senate approval last week, the federal grain transportation bill became law before the end of May. But the upper chamber pointed out many shortcomings remain in transportation law, which need to be rectified in the upcoming review of the Canada Transportation Act. The main concern revolves around the bill’s failure to spell out details of the service level agreements between shippers and carriers that will be regulated by the Canadian Transportation Agency, said Senator Terry Mercer. Despite frequent requests to Transport Minister Lisa Raitt and Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz, C30 The Fair Rail for Farmers Act does not provide for a definition of adequate and suitable transportation or for the term “service obligations.” It also didn’t require the government to ensure new regulations on farmer-graincompany contracts, interswitching and service-level agreements are in place by this August. As a result of the deficiencies, the ministers should require the CTA review to work on definitions for adequate and suitable and for service-level obligations,
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manitobacooperator.ca
Turning the sod on water management with multiple benefits The Pelly Lake Watershed Management project will help control spring runoff, boost hay yields, reduce nutrient loads and produce biofuel
See GRAIN BILL on page 6 »
LaSalle Redboine Conservation District manager Justin Reid prepares to turn the sod on the new project using an old coal shovel as board members look on. Photo Laura Rance By Laura Rance Co-operator editor Holland, Man.
Publication Mail Agreement 40069240
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n a symbolic nod to the past, officials here used an old coal shovel to turn the sod on a project many see as a new future of renewable energy and renewed water quality. After decades of failed attempts to drain a picturesque valley located about five km southeast of Holland so that farmers could use it for hay and pasture, local landowners working through the La Salle Redboine Conservation District, have opted to turn it back to the cattails — at least for now. “We really are looking at a cattail farm,” said Manitoba Conservation Minister Gord Macintosh from the lookout point and site of a planned
interpretative centre on the north side of the valley. The Pelly Lake Water Management Area will use two water-retention structures to purposely hold back water in the spring to backflood the area, similar to the Lizard Lake Ducks Unlimited project near Manitou. Approximately 1,200 acrefeet of water, a volume equivalent to onethird of the Stephenfield Lake Reservoir located to the south, will be retained. The water will be released gradually beginning in June of each year to act as a lateseason recharge for that reservoir as well as other downstream reservoirs. But there is a long list of other spinoff benefits associated with this project — flood mitigation, nutrient removal, wetland enhancement, water storage, climate change adaptation, habitat protec-
tion and public education — not to mention the potential for renewable energy production from harvesting cattails for biofuel. That’s why it’s been generating a buzz in the conservation community and how the conservation district was able to enlist support from three levels of government and at least three non-government conservation organizations for the $300,000 plan. “I think we have here so many dividends from this investment. Yes it is about water retention and ensuring that we better manage the flood risk; it also then means we are better managing the drought risk,” Mackintosh said. But it is the potential for projects like See WATER PROJECT on page 6 »