Manitoba Cuts Rental Rates on Ag Crown Land Leases

Nov 29, 2023

The Manitoba government is giving producers in the province a bigger financial break on agricultural Crown land (ACL) leases for the 2024 growing season.

In an announcement Friday, the government said it is increasing the temporary rent reduction scheduled for ACL forage leases to 55% from 33% in recognition of the “hardships producers have faced in recent years.” The reduction will essentially freeze rental rates to the same as 2023 and will provide producers with over $2 million in support, according to a government release.

The first invoices reflecting the new rent reduction have already started to be mailed out to producers.

Agricultural Crown lands are parcels of land leased to producers for agricultural use including grazing, haying or annual cropping. The lands are important public assets economically, environmentally and socially, essential to supporting and growing the livestock industry in Manitoba, said Premier Wab Kinew.

“This announcement is a lifeline for Crown leaseholders,” said Dale Myhre, a veteran rancher with a cattle operation in the Parkland region. “With this reduction in Crown lease rents, beef producers have gone from feeling desperation to feeling hope again.

Source : Syngenta.ca

Video: Alberta Honey: A Day at Molenkamp Honey Farms

When was the last time you read the label on your honey?

We spent a day at Molenkamp Honey Farms with Michael Molenkamp, who has been keeping bees for 17 seasons and runs three to four thousand hives. In mid-September, he was finishing treatments and getting his bees ready for winter, and he walked us through how Alberta honey gets made.

Alberta has just 150 commercial beekeepers running 300,000 colonies, and together they produce 40% of Canada’s honey. Long summer days and golden canola fields give Alberta honey a light flavour that’s hard to match anywhere else.

Molenkamp calls Alberta beekeepers some of the most resilient farmers he knows. There’s plenty of Alberta honey to go around, but a lot on our shelves isn’t from here, so his ask is simple. Give the label a second look and choose honey made by Alberta beekeepers, or buy straight from a beekeeper near you.