Early Spring Slipping Away

Manitoba farmers are starting to feel the pressure from Mother Nature.

 

Bill Campbell is president of Keystone Agricultural Producers (KAP).

 

"In early April there was that thought that it may be an early spring, things were coming along pretty good," he commented. "We've had a couple of snowfalls and the ground is frozen pretty good here now. We probably lost two weeks and maybe it won't take two weeks to get back to an opportunity and certain places will be a little ahead of others but I'd suggest we're a week to 10 days before we could travel on some fields once the frost gets out of the ground again."

 

Campbell says there's lots of field work to do once the wheels start turning.

 

"We have so many things to do in the spring of 2020. To get that seed bed back in shape and it's to get last year's crop out of the way and all of those issues and then we have very limited fertilizer applied. So there's a lot of challenges. We need a lot of help from Mother Nature and good weather."

Video: Season 6, Episode 12: Veterinarians’ Perspectives on Managing Swine Herd Health Across All Phases

Identifying challenges in swine production and turning them into solutions through research and team development is the focus of this episode. Dr. Christine Mainquist-Whigham of Pillen Family Farms and DNA Genetics shares insights on herd health, biosecurity and trial work to improve pig performance. She also discusses her team’s research philosophy, how they evaluate rate of investment and how they gather feedback from employees to address challenges and maintain herd health across all phases of production. Dr. Carlos Roudergue of Country View Family Farms discusses the growing complexity of swine production, especially as technology increases and employee interaction decreases. He also shares how their workforce is shifting toward more specialized roles to support herd health and efficiency.