News
September 23, 2022 marked the third horrific — and likely most severe — storm to hit the Maritime provinces since 2003 and brought with it wind and rain that has left several thousand residents, including farmers, reeling from the damage. Days later, some are still without power. Tropical storm Fiona rolled in lateFriday night and tore through the region until…
September 23, 2022 marked the third horrific — and likely most severe — storm to hit the Maritime provinces since 2003 and brought with it wind and rain that has left several thousand residents, including farmers, reeling from the damage. Days later, some are still without power.
Tropical storm Fiona rolled in lateFriday night and tore through the region until Saturday afternoon and, although it was downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm, it appears to have surpassed the severity of Hurricane Dorian in September 2019 and Hurricane Juan in September of 2003.
Mary Robinson, president of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, experienced the storm first-hand, as she calls Prince Edward Island home.
“We had winds over 150 kilometres. It ended mid-afternoon on Saturday and dumped anywhere from 60 to 120 millimetres of rain. So what we’re seeing now, people are taking stock, obviously a huge amount of trees down, wreaking havoc on our power grid and just getting around to to try to assess damage and to try to repair things,” shares Robinson, in the interview below.
CFA’s @Agproudmary spoke with @shaunhaney about #HurricaneFiona & the impact to AG communities in the Atlantic Coast. She noted her appreciation for quick gov’t response & the need for increased gov’t dialogue re: proactive AG support programs. https://t.co/f2nHbEGFKb pic.twitter.com/F4OLAnE3Em
— CFA (@CFAFCA) September 28, 2022
She says upwards of 62,000 people are still without power and could be for sometime as crews work to reestablish connections.
In the agricultural community, dairy farmers have been relocating herds, fixing barns and other infrastructure. Potato growers have found themselves with severely damaged warehouses and again, no power.
“Most of our dairy farmers have generators to run things, but when we look at potato harvest and getting power to storages that might be remote. That’s going to be tough. We’re probably looking at those more remote locations to be well over a week. Nobody has a crystal ball to say when, but we certainly we know it’s going to be a while,” says Robinson.
#HurricaneFiona pic.twitter.com/82ZtDj8rPW
— cole (@cole_noonan) September 26, 2022
With having boots on the ground, Robinson says that the wreckage on PEI is still being assessed and it will be a while still before the full extent of the storm damage is known. Other Atlantic provinces seemed to fare slightly better, although still not an easy mess to wade through, at least from what is being reported in the days following the storm. Robinson says after PEI, Newfoundland likely got hit the hardest, followed by Nova Scotia and then New Brunswick.
While the federal government has offered disaster relief in the past through programs like AgriRecovery, she hopes this will serve as a push for the government to have more programs and guides in place that producers can reference as these types of upheavals happen, so they don’t have to wait to see what their options might be.
“What we see over and over is we lack the ability to be nimble, because we don’t have an upfront commitment. We have AgriRecovery. We have reactive programs. And what we’re hoping is, the government’s going to come to the table and work with groups like the Canadian Federation of Agriculture to develop more plug and play stuff,” says Robinson. “We need to know, whether you’re in B.C. with an atmospheric flood, or you’re in Saskatchewan, with a drought, or you’re in Nova Scotia with the hurricane Fiona, we need to know that we can move forward in addressing the gaps that we’re seeing at home, that are going to prevent us from continuing to produce, that we can invest and put those solutions in place”.
For now, Robinson says the spirit of the East Coast is showing its true colours as neighbours rally together to lend a helping hand and rebuild that which Fiona tore from them this past weekend.
Listen to Mary Robinson’s conversation with Shaun Haney on the Sept. 27th edition of RealAg Radio below:
The Manitoba government has announced a temporary reduction to the rental rates for agricultural Crown lands in the province, citing adverse weather conditions that have reduced the productivity and capacity…
The Manitoba government has announced a temporary reduction to the rental rates for agricultural Crown lands in the province, citing adverse weather conditions that have reduced the productivity and capacity of these leased forage acres.
“Stakeholders have told us that rental rates on forage lands are challenging with the hardships they are experiencing following the past two years of extreme weather conditions. We are responding to their concerns by implementing this rent reduction program over the next three years, which will provide ranchers with up to $4 million in relief,” says Agriculture Minister Derek Johnson, in a news release issued Sept 28.
The forage lease rent reduction includes a 50 per cent reduction in 2023, a 33 per cent reduction in 2024, and a 15 per cent reduction in 2025.
Leaseholders do not need to apply as the reduction will be automatically applied to next year’s bills, notes Johnson.
The province is also exploring more changes to “enhance productivity and sustainability of agricultural Crown forage lands, including mechanisms for leaseholders to invest in productivity and adjustments to the terms and conditions of leases.”
The provincial government is inviting feedback through an EngageMB survey that runs until late October (click here to participate in survey.)
Register for RealAg’s weekly Cattle Update newsletter, here.
Syngenta has announced a new soil health mapping service called Interra Scan. The service, which offers precision soil analysis to help growers and agronomists with crop nutrition and soil health…
Syngenta has announced a new soil health mapping service called Interra Scan.
The service, which offers precision soil analysis to help growers and agronomists with crop nutrition and soil health decisions, will be initially available to continental and Eastern European growers.
Interra Scan has a key Canadian connection — the soil scan begins with Tavistock, Ontario’s SoilOptix technology.
SoilOptix is the first step of the Interra Scan service, Syngenta says in a press release. Soil is scanned using gamma-ray technology to map all of the common nutrient and physical soil properties, including pH, soil texture, organic matter, carbon, and cation exchange capacity, as well as elevation and plant water availability.
Physical soil samples are also collected, then that raw scan, soil data, and soil samples are combined and processed to produce up to 27 high-definition soil property layers.
Agronomists and farmers using the service can then access these soil layer maps through a digital platform and develop variable rate application maps for crop input applications
Using SoilOptix means that field scanning can happen at more times of the year, as it is not affected by soil moisture, compaction, crop cover or cultivation state, Syngenta says.
Syngenta adds that by providing an accurate baseline measurement of both organic and active carbon in the soil, Interra Scan can enable growers to adjust their farming systems leading to long-term soil health benefits.
Kinze Manufacturing is making an entrance into the high speed planting market with their 3665 True Speed Planter. On display at the Farm Progress Show at Boone, Iowa, the planter…
Kinze Manufacturing is making an entrance into the high speed planting market with their 3665 True Speed Planter.
On display at the Farm Progress Show at Boone, Iowa, the planter hopes to grab the attention of farmers for the upcoming growing season.
Eric Broadbent, senior director of sales at Kinze, says although they are breaking into the high speed market with this planter, the perhaps more important feature is the accuracy and plant stand potential it brings to producers.
“It’s more than just high speed. It’s also precision accuracy at any speed. So we can go from three to 12 miles an hour in the field planting [with] pinpoint accuracy. The folks that have been in this technology for the last few spring planting seasons have been very impressed with the stand, we hear all the time, how this is the best they’ve had in 30 years, 40 years, 50 years, and that kind of result is what it’s all about for us,” says Broadbent.
Additionally the true speed planter comes with true depth as well, which is Kinze’s hydraulic downforce, keeping the unit in contact at all times regardless of the soil conditions and speeds between three and 12 miles per hour.
The planter can be pulled by numerous tractor sizes, with field conditions and desired speed being the driving factor but he says overall, to start out, producers will want to have at least 10 horsepower per row.
Bushel capacity will range anywhere from 120 down to 85 when looking at the smaller versions available. The new planter is available with several options available for the 2023 planting season.
Hear more from Broadbent in the full interview below with RealAgriculture’s Kara Oosterhuis:
The highly-pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) outbreak in domestic poultry escalated late last week, as Ontario’s chief vet announced the suspension of any activities where domestic birds would co-mingle and a…
The highly-pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) outbreak in domestic poultry escalated late last week, as Ontario’s chief vet announced the suspension of any activities where domestic birds would co-mingle and a prime poultry processing area of Manitoba was placed in a quarantine zone.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) updates infected premises and birds impacted each Wednesday. At last report — September 21st —70 locations across Canada had reported cases impacting an estimated 2.7 million domestic poultry in total.
On September 23rd, the Office of the Chief Veterinarian for Ontario (OCVO) issued a Minister’s Order under the Animal Health Act, 2009, for the purpose of limiting the commingling of birds from different locations in Ontario to reduce the likelihood of disease transmission in domestic birds by limiting direct contact.
The order temporarily prohibits events where birds commingle, such as bird shows, bird sales and swaps, portions of fairs where birds are exhibited, sport, and educational displays where birds are brought from multiple locations, vaccination gatherings for birds from multiple locations, and prohibits the movement of birds to those events.
Set to expire on October 22, 2022, the chief vet may extend the order, if required.
In Manitoba, a positive AI case in the Municipality of Ste. Anne sparked the set up of a primary control zone that includes Blumenort, an area with a major poultry processing plant and hatchery, as well as primary producers.
There are currently four active control zones in Manitoba, with one pending.
A primary control zone is an area where the CFIA has deemed that HPAI exists and where, once declared, certain movements are controlled by the use of permits.
Alberta continues to be the hardest hit province, with 13 primary control zones in place and one pending, and over 1.2 million birds impacted.
For more of our coverage on HPAI, click here.