The AgriPost
August 25, 2023
Manitoba’s Harvest is Varied But Good Overall
Harvest is in full swing now says Ron Krahn. Farmers had completed most of the winter cereals, about 80 to 90 percent of winter cereals in all areas except for the southwest region, which dropped to 40 percent. Most of the spring wheat harvest was happening in the central region, with pockets coming off across the province. Submitted photo Ron Krahn
By Harry Siemens On August 15, Reg Friesen of Prairie Sky Crop Solutions of Niverville, MB, updated farmers on the various insects still making their rounds. Lygus bugs were increasing substantially with lots of the early-seeded canola past the point of mattering. However, the later-seeded canola is still very susceptible, making a sweep of the field an option. The grasshoppers moved from ripening fields to green fields such as soybeans and corn. “Hoppers are also moving
into the later-seeded canola,” said Friesen. “Keep a close eye on your fields as it may take work to control the pests by only doing 2 or 3 border passes of the field if we are lucky.” Pre-harvest crop desiccation on the mid-seeded canola and wheat was also happening. Crops in this seeding period are more stagey because the spring weather caused the soils to dry up quicker. “With days becoming shorter, it will help to dry down the crops” said Friesen. “I see a bit of wheat and oats coming off
the field now, so harvest is on its way.” Friesen noted rainfall was varied with some drought pockets being seen however after a few rounds on the combine and Friesen said its better than expected. Ray Giesbrecht, who farms in the Winkler, MB area, wasn’t combining because his grain was not officially dry. “I could have harvested, but why would I put moist or damp grain into my bin at this time of the year?” said Giesbrecht.
Anne Kirk, a provincial cereal crop specialist with Manitoba Agriculture, said on average, the harvest is at about three percent complete, which is right on the five-year average. Farmers had completed most of the winter cereals, about 80 to 90 percent of winter cereals in all areas except for the southwest region, which dropped to 40 percent. Most of the spring wheat harvest was happening in the central region, with pockets coming off across the province. Continued on Page 2...
Changes Coming for Agricultural Crown Land Use The Manitoba government is making changes to the Agricultural Crown Lands (ACL) Leases and Permits Regulation to support improving forage productivity, growing the livestock industry and advancing sustainability after receiving public feedback. Agricultural Crown lands are parcels of land vested to Manitoba that the government leases to producers for agricultural use, including grazing, haying or annual cropping. Agricultural Crown lands are important public assets economically, environmentally and socially. Agriculturally, these Crown lands are essential to supporting and growing the livestock industry in Manitoba, and provide mitigation and adaptation to climate change, the minister noted. Based on the public feedback, the revised ACL Leases and Permits Regulation will enable outgoing leaseholders to choose the value of improvements for compensation at either the value set out in the appraisal report or a lesser value they specify. The current amendments to the ACL Leases and Permits Regulation include: reducing forage lease rents over the next several years to help producers recover from drought and flood conditions in recent seasons; extending lease terms to a maximum of 20 years from 15 years when producers invest in forage productivity improvements; enabling 15-year leaseholders to transfer the remaining years of their leases to an eligible third party; developing a process that could enable legacy leaseholders to transfer their agricultural Crown lands to a third party by nominating the next leaseholder, if the agricultural Crown lands are not selected under Treaty Land Entitlement and do not impact Indigenous treaty rights; including non-profit Indigenous organizations to be eligible to hold forage leases, in addition to the bands that are already eligible; and formalizing the process for assessing land productivity used to determine rent to create an incentive to manage the land and invest in its productivity. The amendments to the ACL Leases and Permits Regulation will come into force on January 1, 2024.