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SERVING MANITOBA FARMERS SINCE 1925 | Vol. 73, No. 51 | $1.75
December 17, 2015
Manitoba tops in pedigreed seed
manitobacooperator.ca
Cattail harvesting shows promise to aid province’s water woes
It boasts the highest acreage in Canada BY ALLAN DAWSON
The cattail-harvesting project taking place at Pelly’s Lake sees progress in extracting overloaded nutrients and processing the biomass crop
Co-operator staff
I
t’s a three-peat for Manitoba seed growers. For the third year in a row, the province has grown the most pedigreed seed of any province in Canada — 380,131 acres in 2015, up 22 per cent from 2014. It’s quite likely a Manitoba record too, said Jennifer Seward, secretarymanager of the Manitoba Seed Growers’ Association (MSGA). At the very least, it’s the most pedigreed seed acres grown in Manitoba in more than 20 years and a third higher than the five- and 10-year averages. Saskatchewan and Alberta were second and third at 333,293 and 304,971 pedigreed seed acres, respectively. But what makes Manitoba’s feat stand out is its small size. Saskatchewan and Alberta have about 38 million and 34 million acres See PEDIGREED on page 7 »
After a decade of experimentation with equipment and processes, cattail harvesting is poised to move beyond the pilot project stage. Photo: Allan Dawson
BY JENNIFER PAIGE Co-operator staff/Brandon
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T
en years after a research team first considered harvesting cattails in Manitoba, one of the lead researchers remains as enthusiastic as ever about its environmental and economic potential. “Essentially, we have been working on this for the past 10 years. When we set out it was a small project looking at how cattails and reeds and other grasses can actually absorb phosphate and nitrogen and then how we can
actually use those plants for something,” said Richard Grosshans, senior research scientist at the International Institute for Sustainable Development’s water program during a presentation at the Manitoba Conservation Districts Association’s 40th annual conference here last week. The project, which was originally spurred by the need to find a solution for the increasing eutrophication of Lake Manitoba, quickly expanded into a larger research project looking at ways to mange the landscape, preserve the environment while growing the economy.
“Most of you likely know about Lake Winnipeg and the issues that we have there. That was really the reason we got into this project,” said Grosshans. “We have been looking at better, more innovative ways to manage the landscape and cattails are one of the plants we are really interested in.”
Pelly’s Lake Since 2012, researchers have been on site at Pelly’s Lake near Holland, Man. actively harvesting cattails as a means to extract overloaded nutrients, See CATTAILS on page 6 »
FARM SAFETY: The battle rages on in Alberta » PAGE 5