THURSDAY, MAY 19, 2016
VOL. 94 | NO. 20 | $4.25
A NEW SERIES EXPLORES THE IMPORTANT “WHAT IF” QUESTIONS FACING MODERN AGRICULTURE SERVING WESTERN CANADIAN FARM FAMILIES SINCE 1923
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EDITORIAL: FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT OFTEN STIFLES PUBLIC ACCESS | P.10
CROP DISEASE
West on lookout for stripe rust
Price support elimination
On the Farm Eileen and James Yakimchuk accept the challenges of running a small-scale operation. | Page 18
A USDA economist ponders how China’s new corn policy will affect international grain markets. | Page 6
BY BARB GLEN LETHBRIDGE BUREAU
Stripe rust overwintered in at least two Alberta locations, and recent wet, cool weather could favour development of the disease in prairie wheat crops. Michael Harding, a plant pathologist with Alberta Agriculture, said stripe rust development is hard to predict, but current conditions should serve as an alert to watch for the destructive fungus, particularly in winter wheat. “Because it overwintered here and because we are getting some cooler, wet conditions now and we do have some susceptible winter wheat around southern Alberta, it’s going to be something to watch for,” said Harding. The disease also overwintered in southern Saskatchewan, he added. “This is probably one of the earliest years we’ve had reports of overwintering stripe rust because we had such an early spring, so it was April when we were getting reports of stripe rust lesions on wheat.”
FAST TIMES AT RODEO HIGH
SEE STRIPE RUST, PAGE 5
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u|xhHEEJBy00001pzYv#:! Zane Marcenko, a Grade 12 student from Rockglen, Sask., bulldogs a steer while his father, Curtis, hazes for him during the steer wrestling event at the Saskatchewan High School Rodeo Association rodeo in Pilot Butte May 7-8. | CARLA FROSHAUG PHOTO
SEEDING
Manitoba has ‘normal’ spring Farmers in the Red River Valley are pleased to find average moisture conditions in fields BY ED WHITE WINNIPEG BUREAU
ST. FRANCIS XAVIER, Man. — Normal is great when you’re used to wildly varying conditions, so farmers in the Red River Valley have been enjoying it this spring. “It’s shaping up to be a normal year,” said Gunter Jochum, who
farms west of Winnipeg along the banks of the flood-prone Assiniboine River. He managed to seed half of his 3,000-plus acres of cropland before a rainy and cold spell hit in the second week of May. That’s not bad. He doesn’t have sheets of flood water covering his fields. That’s good. In 2011, he lost half his acres.
In 2014, he lost 300. A few more warm, clear days and he’ll be able to complete seeding. He finished his wheat and oats May 10, and much of his canola is in the ground. The rest of the canola and his soybeans will go in when it’s dry and warm enough, which is expected to be in the days leading into the Victoria Day weekend.
The valley is an area of rich farmland lower and warmer than the rest of the Prairies, and farmers up and down the valley are enjoying the good conditions, although a frost has many checking the status of their early emerging canola crops. SEE NORMAL SPRING, PAGE 4
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The Western Producer is published in Saskatoon by Western Producer Publications, which is owned by GVIC Communications Corp. Publisher: Shaun Jessome Publications Mail Agreement No. 40069240
MAY 19, 2016 Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: Box 2500, Stn. Main, Saskatoon, SK. S7K 2C4