Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - April 23, 1990, Winnipeg, Manitoba 5 year 010 Winnipeg free press april 1990 pages 1320 Call 7884040 i Philip business editor for details Rales sub feet to Certai Rice report Wayte free press warming to Winter wheat Plant breeders need Money for Manitoba varieties by Larry Kusch its a High yielding crop that sits in the Field 11 months of the year and is environmentally soil conservationists like it and so do waterfowl but Plant breeders Are having trouble getting enough Money to develop suitable varieties for Mani Toba what is this seemingly Ideal crop none other than Winter a favorite among Farmers in the warmer Midwest but not nearly so popular on the Canadian at not so Manitoba Farmers have grown Only to hectares of Winter wheat per year in recent years most of it in the South its not our cold Winters that Are the biggest Barrier to growing Winter said Anita a University of Manitoba Plant its the Lack of shortest rated varieties that Are resistant to Leaf and Stem rust lies dormant unlike Spring wheat Winter wheat is planted from late August to it germinates before fall lies dormant during the then gets an Early Start the next the crop is ready to be harvested by late july or Early August a full month ahead of Spring seeded Brul Babel said that to grow Winter wheat Farmers must Plant the crop in standing stubble land that has not been worked after Harvest so that the stubble will trap enough Snow to insulate the fledgling crop from the Winter she said this practice and win Ter wheat production in general has several environmental advantages Over the growing of Spring seeded including reduced soil less need for herbicides and lower fuel most wind erosion on the Prairies is caused by summer allowing the practice of leaving the land fallow for a year and controlling weeds by cultivation and by fall and Spring Field by planting into standing stubble the soil is minimally disturbed and less prone to she adding that by avoiding Spring and fall cultivation Farmers use less Early jump since the wheat is already up and out of the ground when the Snow it also gets an Early jump on the Winter wheat is extremely competitive with summer annual weeds such As wild Green Foxtail and Brul Babel the Winter wheat usually out competes them and its not very often that you need to consider chemicals for those particular even ducks Benefit from the growing of Winter wheat Over other annual she by leaving stubble standing and not working the Fields in ducks and other waterfowl have a place to they have they have a place to hide from and because were not tilling and seed ing in the were not disturb ing those nesting she said the Winter wheat variety no Star the Only one covered in Manitoba under the federa Provin Cial crop insurance program of yields Canadas traditional hard red Spring cheats by 25 per the Price Premium that Canadian Farmers receive for their world famous bread making wheat often fails to make up for its lower yield and added production she Brul Babel is working to Breed an improved Winter wheat that Manitoba Farmers can use Success to do she must retain or improve upon the Winter hardiness and yield potential of no Star and incorporate disease resistance and a Shorter no Star will grow As tall As metres in the red River and that causes lodging the plants topple Over and the stems which Lowers yields and creates harvesting Brul Babel said that while some of her Breeding lines look promis it will probably be another five years before a new u of Edeve loped Winter wheat is available for use under Manitoba growing Condi but the release of a new variety could be delayed even longer if the program runs Short of the University is doing its she but Brul Babel is worried that outside funding sources Are drying the University has a lot of Money invested in this she now its the private sectors turn to Start funding some research As ducks she has much to gain from an increased Winter wheat it used to provide an annual Grant to the u of m but lately it has offered Only moral emergency funding and she has not received word on whether her program will Benefit from the million Prairie Habi Tat joint a bilateral can agreement involving Pri vate wildlife groups including Anita Brul Babel works in Laboratory at u of m Plant ducks Public agencies and state and Federal governments on both sides of the the Money is part of a larger 15year waterfowl agreement signed in As some much needed government support will Likely disappear with the winding Down of the five year Federal provincial Agri food program in Brule Babel its the re cent announced farming for to Morrow is geared mainly to providing incentives to Farmers to improve their soil conservation practices and not to funding re she a spokesman for ducks unlimited said the waterfowl Agency is prepared to step in with emergency funding if it is needed to keep the u of m program but it does not want to begin providing general operating wed hate to see it the Breeding program fall said Wayne manager of dus agriculture Extension but he said Core funding is a government at the we have no plans to fund Sandy coordinator of the Prairie habitat joint said the projects main thrusts Are to compensate Farmers for taking marginal land out of production and for farm Extension he said the habitat venture Doest feel a lot of pressure to fund research since there Are existing Winter wheat varieties that can be grown quite successfully in the Western half of the which is not prone to rust Jim one of the coordinators of the million Feder a provincial farming for Tomor Row confirmed that there is less Money for research under the new conservation although some is still available for programs such As but a decision on which projects will receive help has not yet been he Cash Iii on business Martin Cash in Xis at the big picture of Whin pegs business world without to begetting 11 be and with the winning Iydee Ivess delivering tet re 7 7 lays a you can read cases column in the morning with your or on your Way to us i in on our Early business into ration in the morning fresh Iydee Stivi Iii april Winnipeg tree press saudi exports take sales from american Farmers by Jonathan Knutson a week Magazine its no fun being a North american wheat Farmer these wheat is fetching around per Down from about a decade prices have fallen so Low that most wheat producers including highly efficient ones find it practically impossible to cover their lon term but Price is no problem in saudi where most wheat Farmers receive an Eye catching per Bushel from their the big payoff garners them an enor Mous per acre profit of trouble the High Price has led to skyrocketing production and to rising saudi wheat exports that take away sales from North american and australian that not going to change any time despite a bit of hand wringing from the saudi govern the government began paying big Bucks a staggering per Bushel for domestically grown wheat in the saudis wanted to diversify their especially in Rural and they figured Sel Suffi Cliency in wheat was a Good place to they also figured that self suf fic ency would be insurance against the possibility of Grain embargoes or higher world Grain saudi attracted by that per went to wheat production Rose to million bushels in double the 1980 and then nearly doubled again in in the saudis became self sufficient in wheat in and so the government Cut its Price for wheat from to but even at it was still extremely profitable to grow production continued to to million bushels in 1985 and a record 114 million bushels in 1989 a 15fold increase from when the decade that big increase int As amazing As it May with prices so the saudis have been Able to afford the Best of everything irrigation sys Treyve also been Able to buy top notch agricultural expertise from the most saudi wheat is actually produced by an army of foreign in any the saudis Are producing much More wheat than they faced with rapidly grow ing saudi Arabia has sharply increased its wheat last the saudis exported 88 million bushels of or about three quarters of their much of it went to the Middle an area where the australians nor Mally sell a lot of the saudis also sold wheat to the soviet a Good Market for wheat Export in 88 million bushels int a huge but Given the fierce Competition for Export its its also at least to North american and australian wheat economics and common sense dictate that saudi Arabia should be importing not exporting for its the saudi government is getting a Little tired of All the surplus its spending More than billion a year to subsidize its wheat and its losing about on every Bushel that it the saudi govern ment has extremely deep but it would like to spend a Little so it has Cut from to what some of the biggest saudi producers receive for a Bushel of further reductions Are the department of Agricula figures that the reduction will crimp saudi wheat it predicts that saudi wheat exports will average about 55 million bushels a year in the Early Down from 85 million in i Tariff cation Impact Tariff cation is the main thrust of the United states Trade position in Gatt it is the conversion of All no Tariff import barriers to once provisions import quotas and variable import levies have a fixed and visible tariffs can be negotiated 7 tories subsiding yes to no Tariff cation will have Little yes Tariff cation could be substituted for named yes Tariff cation will have an indirect effect which May constrain the policy in Paul Ullrich Winnipeg free press ;