It's the great pumpkin harvest!

Sep 23, 2022

A Southern Manitoba pumpkin farmer says he's seeing average to above average yields this year.

Scott Friesen, who operates Snowland Vegetable Farms near Halbstadt, commented on the timing of this year's harvest.

"They're about 10 days to two weeks later than I would have liked to have started, just due to the wet spring. Our planting delay was also about two weeks. The wholesalers were looking to buy much earlier but we were just unable to deliver product. It just wasn't quite ready yet."

Friesen grows 95 acres of pumpkins and says he's harvested about 10 per cent so far.

"It's looking to be pretty good. The pumpkins have sized up fairly well to almost a little bit too big as some of the pumpkins, the seed that I buy is supposed to be for a specific size, but with the moisture they've gotten a little bit larger than I would have liked to have seen them."

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Video: Why Invest in Canada’s Seed Future? | On The Brink: Episode 3

Darcy Unger just invested millions to build a brand-new seed plant on his farm in Stonewall, Manitoba so when it’s time for his sons to take over, they have the tools they need to succeed.

Right now, 95% of the genetics they’ll be growing come from Canadian plant breeders.

That number matters.

When fusarium hit Western Canada in the late 90s, it was Canadian breeders who responded, because they understood Canadian conditions. That ability to react quickly to what’s happening on Canadian farms is exactly what’s at risk when breeding programs lose funding.

For farmers like Darcy, who have made generational investments based on the assumption that better genetics will keep coming, the stakes are direct and personal.

We’re on the brink of decisions that will shape our agricultural future for not only our generation, but also the ones to come.

What direction will we choose?

On The Brink is a year-long video series traveling across Canada to meet the researchers, breeders, farmers, seed companies, and policymakers shaping the future of Canadian plant breeding. Each week, a new story. Each story, a piece of the bigger picture.

Episode 3 is above. Follow Seed World Canada to catch every episode, and tell us: Do you think the next generation will have the tools they need to success when they takeover? How is the future going to look?