The Association of Manitoba Community Pastures up for national stewardship award

A key highlight during the Canadian Beef Industry Conference is the naming of the 2024 national winners for The Environmental Stewardship Award (TESA).

TESA recognizes producers who go above and beyond standard industry conservation practices and set positive examples for their peers and the general public. 

Among the finalists for the national title is the Association of Manitoba Community Pastures (AMCP).

The threat of a national rail strike is looming closer; WGEA says Canada is dropping the ball

The Teamsters Canada Rail Conference says the roughly 9000 CN and CPKC workers involved could walk out as of 12:01 am Thursday.

The Executive Director of the Western Grain Elevators Association (WGEA) Wade Sobkowich says a national rail strike involving both railways will have a major impact, as there is no Plan B.

According to the WGEA we move roughly 50 million tonnes of grain per day by rail in Canada.

Sobkowich says the railways on Tuesday started preparing for a work stoppage situation with both railways embargoing all Canadian-origin products.

Prime Minister calls on railways and the union to reach a deal

As the clock ticks down on the strike deadline there's an overwhelming call for the Canadian government to intervene and prevent a national rail strike.

For months now Canadian Pacific Kansas City, Canadian National and the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference have been at the bargaining table but to no avail.

On Sunday, the union announced that unless the parties reached a last-minute agreement, workers would be off the job as of 12:01 a.m. Eastern time Thursday.

The Canadian Beef Conference is underway

The Canadian Beef Industry Conference is being held this week in Saskatoon for the first time.

The four-day event brings together 500 attendees from cattle producers, to government agencies, beef industry representatives and researchers from across the country to share ideas.

Vice President of the Canadian Cattle Association Tyler Fulton says its an opportunity for participants to hear from some keynote speakers and take part in the CCA committee meetings.

Former Premier Brad Wall remembers Lyle Stewart

Saskatchewan's former Agriculture Minister Lyle Stewart has lost his battle with cancer.

The 73-year-old served six terms as MLA for the former Thunder Creek consistency now known as the Morse-Lumsden riding from 1999 to 2023.

He was one of the 25 Sask Party MLAs to be elected in their first election as a party in 1999.

Premier Scott Moe shared on social media that Lyle's quiet strength and dedication to the people he served were an example to all of us who served with him.  

Quality of the prairie hay crop is declining with the heat

Getting this year's hay crop cut in top condition has been a challenge across the prairies.

The heat over the last couple of weeks is resulting in a decline not just in crops, but in hay quality as well.

Hay conditions have been slowly declining since we started seeing the higher temperatures with many days hitting well into the 30's.

Oat crop reaches the milk stage, and the fall rye harvest could begin soon

This week's crop report shows the recent heat has really helped to advance the crop.

Dennis Lange, Manitoba's soybean specialist puts together the weekly crop report and says fall rye is now in the late dough to dry down stage, with harvest potentially beginning in about ten days. Winter wheat is at the hard dough stage with some dry down starting to occur. 

He says when you look at corn, soybean, and dry bean crops things have really started to pick up with the heat.