KAP organized a professional development workshop October 3 and 4th for General Managers and Executive Directors of Manitoba Commodity Groups. This was an opportunity to network and to share information on topics of interest to all Boards and Councils.The formal agenda included guest speakers on various topics including Governance, Lobbying, Strategic Thinking and other pertinent topics. For the MFC there certainly were several topics that will be quite valuable going forward.

For example, Tom Dooley of Aikens, MacAuley, Thorvaldson (Law Firm) covered several items on Board Governance including; understanding the roles of board members, general management and staff; committee functions; authority and reporting to the Board; conflict of interest; code of conduct and Board member confidentiality. 

KAP plans to continue to host this event annually as all who attended felt it was a very worthwhile workshop. 

Churchill Gateway Project - Many factors are encouraging the assessment of the Churchill port for exporting hay and hay products.

• Increased energy costs are increasing land based transportation costs proportional to ocean shipping,
• lack of effective competition in the Canadian rail network is increasing rail transportation costs,
• The Great Lakes Seaway system is aging and constrained by the size of the locks and,
• Global warming is increasing the duration of the Arctic shipping season.

Integrating legume cover crops or green manures into annual crop rotations has the potential to offer substantial benefits to Canadian prairie cropping systems including N, weed control, and improved soil structure. The price of N fertilizer is increasing and alternative N sources such as green manures may now be more practical for farmers to consider. In Manitoba, green manure systems can consistently enrich soils with at least 100 kg N/ha. However, the challenge of making green manures economically attractive is still an impediment.

Grazing the green manures may be one way around this economic impediment. Research has shown that green manures produce at least as much available N to the subsequent grain crops when they are grazed compared with the standard green manure practice (tilled and no plant material harvested). The green manures tested included pea/oat mixtures, hairy vetch, sweet clover, lentil, soybeans, oats alone, and a mixture ("cocktail") of various plant species. Based on a green manure production of 5000 kg/ha, animal live weight gain is estimated at 175 kg/ha (Thiessen Martens and Entz, 2011). This translates into $315-481 ha-1 of income from the green manure year. Read the Project Summary.

Several meetings are being held across Canada this fall to consult with stakeholders about the adoption of Low Level Presence in crops being exported. The CFGA does not have a position or policy on this, however, some of their members will participate and provide feedback to the membership.       

According to Crop Life International, low level presence (LLP) of impurities in agricultural commodities is the incidental presence of a material in a product at levels that could reasonably be expected to be present when using generally accepted agricultural and manufacturing practices. This includes foreign matter (such as rat faeces) or grain from other traded crops, and it is normally managed by agreeing quality standards and monitoring. When used in relation to genetically modified (GM) material, the term refers to the incidental presence of GM material in food, feed or grain at levels that are consistent with generally accepted agricultural and manufacturing practices.  

Some countries presently have a zero tolerance level, which can result in rejection of the cargo.