Mbc150115

Soybean’s ‘silent killer’

A new outdoor farm show

Soybean cyst nemotode creeping closer » Pg 8

Coming to Saskatoon in July » Pg 9

January 15, 2015

SERVING MANITOBA FARMERS SINCE 1925 | Vol. 73, No. 3

Disease a North American first Where it came from isn’t as important as how it will be contained when it comes to verticillium wilt in canola By Shannon VanRaes

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manitobacooperator.ca

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Aiming Beef leaders strive to high drive industry forward Goals include boosting production efficiency by 15 per cent and increasing carcass cut-out value by 15 per cent in just five years

co-operator staff, with files from Dave Bedard and Reuters / St. Jean Baptiste

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anitoba prides itself on welcoming newcomers, but the canola sector won’t be rolling out the welcome matt for this one — verticillium longisporum. The disease was discovered in a Manitoba canola field late last fall and visually identified at Manitoba Agriculture’s Crop Diagnostic Centre. That determination was later confirmed by molecular analysis at the National See DISEASE on page 7 »

Cows aren’t straying far from the feeder during these cold January days.  Photo: Laura Rance By Alexis Kienlen staff

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usiness gurus call them Big Hairy Audacious Goals — and now Canadian beef leaders have to figure out how to achieve the ones they’ve set for their industry. “You have to pick a place to get to,” said Trevor Atchison, co-chair of the National Beef Strategic Planning Group. “You can’t make every goal in life, but if you don’t set something that’s higher than what you have today, you can’t strive to get there.”

The group, comprised of the country’s main beef industry players, released a document entitled Canada’s National Beef Strategy earlier this month. It sets the bar high with three specific goals to be achieved by 2020: Boost production efficiency by 15 per cent, increase carcass cut-out value by 15 per cent, and reduce cost disadvantage relative to global competitors by seven per cent. “Maybe the goals are more ambitious than what we can complete, I don’t know,” said Atchison, a cow-calf producer and backgrounder from

Pipestone, who is also vice-chair of Canada Beef. “But it’s in every producer’s best interest to try and get there to keep the industry healthy and grow it, with increased numbers that we’re going to need to maintain the market share for the global beef business we have today.” The 30-page document (available at www.beefstrategy.com) contains many items that are long-term propositions, including improving genetics, forage See BEEF BUSINESS on page 6 »

FINED: Both railways penalized for missed grain targets » PAGE 3

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