There's some key issues for the new NDP government to address in the Agriculture sector

Oct 06, 2023

The NDP will form the next Provincial Government winning a clear majority under incoming Premier Wab Kinew in Tuesday's election.

During the last session and throughout the election campaign Diljeet Brar was the NDP's voice on Agriculture.

There's every expectation he'll move into the role of agriculture Minister, but the decision around Ministerial roles rests with the new Premier as he forms his cabinet.

We could just see a change in seats as Derek Johnson, the former agriculture minister under the Progressive Conservatives, is also headed back to the legislature.

Farm groups are congratulating the Premier designate and his team on the win.

The Keystone Agricultural Producers general manager Brenna Mahoney says they look forward to working with the new government on some key priorities for the ag sector.

"Removing the Education Property Tax on Farmland, to Right-to-Repair Laws for Farm Machinery, Improving Manitoba’s Infrastructure Network, Addressing Labour Shortages, and Better Healthcare and Safety in Rural Areas."

Manitoba Beef president Matthew Atkinson says they look forward to talking about a number of key issues from improvements to BRM programming - to ensure beef producers are on a level playing field as other sectors, to agricultural Crown lands, water management, infrastructure, trade, labour issues and recognition for ecosystem services provided through beef production.

Rick Préjet chair of Manitoba Pork says hog farmers across the province, and the over 22,000 Manitobans who work in the sector, will continue to build on the collaborative working relationship that’s been developed with the NDP over the past few years.

All three groups also commented on the progress that was made on some key ag issues under the PC government with former Ag Minister Derek Johnson

Source : Pembinavalley online

Video: Seeing the Whole Season: How Continuous Crop Modeling Is Changing Breeding

Plant breeding has long been shaped by snapshots. A walk through a plot. A single set of notes. A yield check at the end of the season. But crops do not grow in moments. They change every day.

In this conversation, Gary Nijak of AerialPLOT explains how continuous crop modeling is changing the way breeders see, measure, and select plants by capturing growth, stress, and recovery across the entire season, not just at isolated points in time.

Nijak breaks down why point-in-time observations can miss critical performance signals, how repeated, season-long data collection removes the human bottleneck in breeding, and what becomes possible when every plot is treated as a living data set. He also explores how continuous modeling allows breeding programs to move beyond vague descriptors and toward measurable, repeatable insights that connect directly to on-farm outcomes.

This conversation explores:

• What continuous crop modeling is and how it works

• Why traditional field observations fall short over a full growing season

• How scale and repeated measurement change breeding decisions

• What “digital twins” of plots mean for selection and performance

• Why data, not hardware, is driving the next shift in breeding innovation As data-driven breeding moves from research into real-world programs, this discussion offers a clear look at how seeing the whole season is reshaping value for breeders, seed companies, and farmers, and why this may be only the beginning.