Manitoba cooperator

Page 1

Sweet Success

New Priorities

Red River College’s rooftop hives are teaching the teachers » PG 15

Data and infrastructure the next grain-handling challenges » PG 6

SERVING MANITOBA FARMERS SINCE 1925 | Vol. 75, No. 35 | $1.75

August 31, 2017

manitobacooperator.ca

A new day for grain transportation?

Province may cap drainage funding in Pasquia Province could pull plug on pumping in The Pas, pushing costs on to producers and municipal government

With record port throughput occurring twice in the crop years following the 2013-14 shipping backlog it ‘feels’ that way BY ALLAN DAWSON

BY SHANNON VANRAES

Co-operator staff

Co-operator staff/The Pas

R

od Berezowecki points to a canola field as though he’s spotted a unicorn. “That’s one of only a couple,” explains the reeve and farmer, w h o re p re s e nts the Rural Municipality of Kelsey. “Almost nothing was seeded.”

Publication Mail Agreement 40069240

See Cap drainage on page 7 »

T

he great grain backlog of 2013-14 was a disaster, costing western Can­ adian farmers billions, but there’s a silver lining: since then, grain movement has never been better. “I think it really was a wakeup call for a lot of parties, especially governments, and people who aren’t necessarily as close to the (grain transportation) issue,” Wade Sobkowich, executive director of the Western Grain Elevator Association (WGEA), said in an interview Aug. 23. “The WGEA had been talking about it a long time prior to 2013-14.” Because of the backlog grain companies widened the basis — the difference between port and country grain prices — costing farmers an estimated $5 billion to $6.7 billion, estimates University of Saskatchewan agricultural economist Richard Gray. While the WGEA doesn’t agree with Gray’s analysis, it does agree farmers and grain companies suffered financially through lost and delayed sales. Three crop years later Canadian grain terminals handled 35.945 million tonnes, set-

More collaboration and better communication is credited with improving Western Canada’s grain-handling and transportation system. One example of better communications occurred last fall when Doug MacDonald, CN Rail’s vicepresident of bulk (standing top centre), and other CN officials, met with western Canadian farm leaders at the Port of Vancouver.  PHOTO: ALLAN DAWSON

ting a new record in the 201617 crop year that ended July 31, the Grain Monitor’s week 52 report shows. That’s the second throughput record in the last three crop years.

And even though the railways failed to meet grain company demand in 2013-14, in the end shipments from bulk terminals at port of 31.1 million tonnes were also record — 15 per cent

higher than the previous record of 26.9 million set in 2012-13, according to the Grain Monitor’s statistics. See crop years on page 6 »

NAFTA RENEGOTIATIONS: RUMOURS SWIRL » PAGE 3 T:10.25”

STRAIGHT CUT MY WORKLOAD Take advantage of InVigor® patented Pod Shatter Reduction hybrids. InVigor L140P, early maturing InVigor L233P and NEW InVigor L255PC with the added benefit of clubroot resistance.* cropscience.bayer.ca

1 888-283-6847

@Bayer4CropsCA

#AskBayerCrop

#SellTheSwather

Always read and follow label directions. InVigor ® is a registered trademark of the Bayer Group. Bayer CropScience Inc. is a member of CropLife Canada. *To predominant clubroot pathotypes identified in Canada at the time of registration.

BCS10796481_InVigor_Podshatter_404.indd

None

T:3”

I will approach harvest with flexibility and confidence, knowing that my yield potential is protected.


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.