G3 helps fund CASA's "BeGrainSafe" program

Feb 07, 2023

G3 is renewing its support of the Canadian Agricultural Safety Association (CASA).

The company is committing $50,000 to CASA in 2023, maintaining G3’s position as a top sponsor and Safety Champion of the BeGrainSafe program.

CASA’s BeGrainSafe program raises awareness of the risks of becoming trapped in grain, trains firefighters in rescue techniques, and makes available specialized grain rescue equipment to rural fire departments.

Since BeGrainSafe’s inception in 2016, G3’s support has helped train hundreds of firefighters and provided dozens of sets of rescue equipment in farming communities in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec.

“Safety is of paramount importance at all of our grain handling facilities, but our commitment doesn’t stop there,” says Don Chapman, G3’s CEO. “We’re pleased to be able to enhance safety in and around the communities we serve.”

“G3’s long-term support has allowed the BeGrainSafe program to thrive,” says Andrea Lear, CASA’s CEO. “BeGrainSafe messaging around prevention has increased and more firefighters than ever have received the information they need to save lives to keep Canadian farms safe and sustainable.”

Grain entrapment is a potentially deadly risk for farmers and others who work around large volumes of grain, and specialized training and equipment are needed to safely extract a victim. Just last year a Manitoba farmer trapped in grain was rescued by local firefighters who had received BeGrainSafe training and equipment.

Source : Pembinavalley online

Video: Spring 2026 weather outlook for Wisconsin; What an early-arriving El Niño could mean

Northeast Wisconsin is a small corner of the world, but our weather is still affected by what happens across the globe.

That includes in the equatorial Pacific, where changes between El Niño and La Niña play a role in the weather here -- and boy, have there been some abrupt changes as of late.

El Niño and La Niña are the two phases of what is collectively known as the El Niño Southern Oscillation, or ENSO for short. These are the swings back and forth from unusually warm to unusually cold sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean along the equator.

Since this past September, we have been in a weak La Niña, which means water temperatures near the Eastern Pacific equator have been cooler than usual. That's where we're at right now.

Even last fall, the long-term outlook suggested a return to neutral conditions by spring and potentially El Niño conditions by summer.

But there are some signs this may be happening faster than usual, which could accelerate the onset of El Niño.

Over the last few weeks, unusually strong bursts of westerly winds farther west in the Pacific -- where sea surface temperatures are warmer than average -- have been observed. There is a chance that this could accelerate the warming of those eastern Pacific waters and potentially push us into El Niño sooner than usual.

If we do enter El Nino by spring -- which we'll define as the period of March, April and May -- there are some long-term correlations with our weather here in Northeast Wisconsin.

Looking at a map of anomalously warm weather, most of the upper Great Lakes doesn't show a strong correlation, but in general, the northern tiers of the United States do tend to lean to that direction.

The stronger correlation is with precipitation. El Niño conditions in spring have historically come with a higher risk of very dry weather over that time frame, so this will definitely be a transition we'll have to watch closely as we move out of winter.