• 1 can (540 ml/19 oz) red kidney beans
• 500 ml (2 cups) Big Batch Cooked Ground Beef (recipe follows)
• 125 ml (1/2 cup) chili sauce, plus more for serving
• 4 large flour tortillas
• 500 ml (2 cups) low-fat shredded cheddar cheese
• 2 green onions, chopped

Drain, rinse and mash kidney beans. Combine with thawed ground beef and chili sauce.

Place 1 tortilla on a baking sheet. Spread right to the edge with one-quarter of the beef mixture. Sprinkle with one-quarter each of the cheddar and green onions. Repeat with remaining tortillas and ingredients.

Bake in a 200 C (400 F) oven for 10 to 15 minutes or until cheese is melted. Slice into wedges and serve with more chili sauce, if desired.

Makes 6 servings.

Big Batch Ground Beef

2 kg (4 lb) ground beef

4 onions, minced

4 garlic cloves, minced

In a stockpot or Dutch oven, cook beef over medium-high heat for 9 to 10 minutes, breaking it into small chunks with the back of a spoon until browned and completely cooked. Drain in colander. Return to pot and add onions and garlic; simmer, uncovered, for 12 to 15 minutes or until vegetables soften.

Spread mixture in a single layer on several 500 ml (2 cup) foil-lined baking trays; cover loosely with plastic wrap and freeze just until meat is firm, about 1 hour. Loosen frozen beef into chunks and scoop meal-sized portions into freezer bags or sealable containers. Freeze for up to 3 months. To thaw, microwave at 50 per cent power for 3 to 4 minutes.

Source: Canadian Beef.

Open Farm Day is a day set aside for farmers and consumers to connect with each other. The event allows participating farmers to showcase their products, services or attractions.

Open Farm Day educates Manitobans about local food, farms and the agriculture industry. Encouraging urban consumers to travel to these farms will contribute to the vitality of rural areas and increase the awareness of the agritourism industry

Requirements of participation

1.  That you operate a farm which produces a product, service or agritourism experience.
2. That a visit to your farm will provide an educational experience to the public.
3. That you not charge admission to visit the farm on Open Farm Day (specific activities offered on your farm, however, may have an admission, i.e. entry to a corn maze, zipline or other activity).

Responsibilities

Safety: Plan the day to provide a safe and enjoyable visit for the public making reasonable efforts to minimize physical and biological hazards on your farm. Providing food samples or sale of food products to the public requires specific food safety requirements to be followed to do this safely. If you allow access to animals on your farm, you will need to take safety measures as well as to ensure that hand washing is available and encouraged.

Insurance: For legal purposes, ensure you are protected by liability insurance of $1 million for the public to visit your farm for this event. Check with your insurance company to determine your policy coverage.

Participation form: due April 30, 2012

This form includes the information specific to your farm which is necessary for the map brochure and website. The submission deadline is April 30 to allow for production and printing of the map brochure for release June 4th.

Preparation: Plan and be prepared for dealing with the possibility of large numbers of visitors by having extra help available for the day. Last year’s attendance at farms varied from less than 10 to over 1000 depending on the farm location.

Support from MAFRI

Resource materials: Safety guidelines, planning recommendations for the day as well as background material for help in handling questions from the public on agricultural issues.

Promotional materials: Open Farm Day map brochures, host farm gate signs, posters, web site www.openfarmday.ca is under construction and will be live by mid-June; assistance with YouTube video clip.

What to offer at the farm

The main objective is to provide the public an opportunity to visit and learn about your farm. Visitors will be interested in the daily operations of your farm – what is everyday to you will be intriguing to them! Plan an educational experience or activity. Your description of what visitors can expect will be included on the website and map.

The top activities visitors are looking for include:

• Visiting with farmers
• Seeing animals
• Demonstrations and tours
• Tasting and buying local foods

Open Hours: there are no set requirements for open hours – choose what works best for your operation, i.e. 10 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Please be sure to note these on the participation form.

Directions to the farm: Please write these carefully; use of road numbers, names, accurate kilometers as well as GPS coordinates will avoid having visitors go astray.

Rewards

Preparing your farm for Open Farm Day will require an investment of time on your part. For farms with farm gate sales, direct marketing or agritourism experiences, the benefit of the event is clear. The promotional payback for time invested should be considerable. You are encouraged to market your farm and Open Farm Day in your community as well as through your website, mailing lists and customers.

For farms which do not sell products directly the payback is less tangible, but still evident. As non-farm rural populations grow, your relationship with neighbours may become more complex. This event will help build connections between farms and non-farm populations. This is an opportunity to be an ambassador for the agriculture industry.

 Register today – Open Farm Day registration form 2012

Your guide to managing SCN infested fields for increased yield and an increased bottom line is available at the MPGA office. We have received copies of the North Central Soybean Research Program (NCSRP) guide for our producers. The NCSRP is a partnership of 12 soybean checkoff organizations that work to improve soybean performance through cooperative research and education.

This publication was developed with you, the soybean grower, in mind. Included in these pages are the answers to frequently asked questions, along with recommendations based on decades of research on soybean management in SCN-infested fields.

This research has shown that soybeans can be produced profitably in spite of SCN. The first move is yours; to determine whether you have SCN infestations, then tailor a management strategy for your farm.

Click here to download a copy of the SCN management guide. Copies are also available by contacting the MPGA office at 745-6488.

Visit the NCSRP website here.

Michael has both a Bachelor of Science Degree and a Master’s of Science degree from the University of Manitoba. His Master’s thesis focused on assessing the quality of Manitoba-grown soybeans and was completed under the co-supervision of Dr. Linda Malcolmson at Cigi and Dr. Sue Arntfield at the University of Manitoba. Prior to joining MPGA, Michael spent four years at Cigi where he worked closely with the Grain Farmers’ of Ontario in the role of Ontario Wheat Technical Specialist. He has also worked with the Richardson Centre for Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals as well as the CGC’s Pulse Research Laboratory.

Michael is currently pursuing an MBA from the Asper School of Business at the University of Manitoba.  He is originally from Shaunavon, Saskatchewan and now lives in Winnipeg with his wife Jocelyn, a high school teacher, and their 18-month-old son Mason. 

Michael can be reached at 204-745-6488 or michael@manitobapulse.ca .

Canadian soybean farmers and exporters have just completed a very successful trade mission to parts of Asia to promote Canadian soybeans thanks in large part to the investment made by our federal government to support the development of new international markets for soybeans.

The theme for this year’s program was “Looking to the Future” and highlighted Canadian soybean production capabilities and advantages. There were very high turnouts from Asian industry representatives at seminars in each country where the Canadian presentations focused on our points of difference including segregation systems, environmental sustainability practices in soybean production and production protocols that ensure Canadian food-grade soybeans are the highest quality.

“The investment by the government in our market development initiatives allowed us to communicate Canada’s commitment to producing high value, traceable, safe and quality assured soybeans to members of the value chain in each country,” says Martin Harry, Chair of the Canadian Soybean Exporters’ Association. “Japan, Singapore and Malaysia are three of the top five markets for Canadian food grade soybeans so it is very important to maintain existing relationships and market share in each of these countries.”

The trade mission included representatives from the Canadian Soybean Council, the Canadian International Grains Institute, the Canadian Soybean Exporters’ Association and the Canadian Grain Commission. Funding for a portion of the trade mission was from the Canadian government through theAgriMarketing Program under Growing Forward, which helps industry implement long-term international strategies.

“The entire trip went beyond our expectations,” says Ontario soybean farmer Markus Haerle. “The seminars were very well attended in every country and the tours of the industry-leading miso, tofu and soy beverage facilities were informative for us Canadians and a great opportunity to discuss the performance of Canadian soybeans at the customer level.”

The next steps following this mission are two-fold. The information gleaned through the tours and meetings in our key markets will be communicated to Canadian farmers in order to expand production of our high value IP soybeans. Additionally, this summer, an incoming mission is being organized to bring some of the major soybean buyers from Japan to Ontario, Manitoba and Quebec to tour farms and handling facilities in each province.

-30-

The Canadian Soybean Council (CSC) was established in 2005 as a partnership between Canada’s soybean growing provinces; Manitoba, Quebec and Ontario. Our original focus was identifying and developing new export markets for high quality Canadian soybeans.

Contact: Nicole Mackellar, 519-767-4124

Manitoba Conservation and Water Stewardship advises, effective immediately, it is lifting the restriction for the application of nutrients to crop land and golf courses across southern Manitoba for this spring.  This is three weeks earlier than normal. The change is in response to recent record warm temperatures and low soil-moisture content.

Ordinarily the restriction prohibits applying nutrients before April 10, a measure intended to prevent nutrient run-off by ensuring nutrients are not applied to frozen soils.  This year’s unseasonably warm temperatures mean that soils across southern Manitoba are no longer frozen.  This combined with low moisture content will guard against nutrient run-off to waterways.

All other requirements of the nutrient management regulation remain in effect.  Nutrients cannot be applied to sensitive lands along waterways or to lands classified as Nutrient Management Zone N4. 

All golf courses and driving ranges must submit a nutrient management plan describing how they will manage nutrients during the 2012 growing season. 

This change does not apply to livestock manure.

More information on the nutrient management regulation is available at: www.gov.mb.ca/waterstewardship/wqmz/index.html. 

- 30 -

Listed below are links to the invitation letter which has all of the details, and an entry form. Please use one form per variety (copy as many as necessary).

Deadline to submit forms: Thursday, April 5th
Deadline to submit seed: Monday, April 16th. Treated seed is not allowed. Please send bare seed only.

If you cannot meet these deadlines, please contact Bruce Brolley at (204) 750-1425 and Roxanne Lewko at (204) 745-6488.

2012 MPGA Invitation to Western Canada Soybean Trials
2012 MPGA Soybean entry form – Western Canada

1. To provide regional performance data of registered varieties and previously supported lines for submission in SEED MANITOBA 2013 and the 2012 Pulse Variety Evaluation insert. It is recommended to only enter varieties that you are actively marketing.
2. To develop the Manitoba data package for unregistered soybean lines that will be presented to the 2013 Ontario Oil and Protein Seed Crop Committee (OOPSCC) meeting requesting support for registration of the line through the Manitoba West subcommittee. This is intended for varieties that will ultimately be marketed in Western Canada.

Listed below are links for the  invitation letter which has all of the details, and entry forms. Please use one form per variety (copy as many as necessary).

Please note: there is a separate entry form for the Beausejour site. Details can be found in the attached Beausejour form.

Deadline to submit forms is Thursday, April 5th.
Deadline to submit seed is Monday, April 16th. Treated seed is not allowed. Please send bare seed only.

If you cannot meet these deadlines, please contact Bruce Brolley at (204) 750-1425 and Roxanne Lewko at (204) 745-6488.

2012 MPGA Invitation to Soybean Recommendation Trials
2012 MPGA Soybean entry form
2012 MPGA Soybean entry form – Beausejour

The deadline to submit entries is Thursday, March 15th at 5:00 pm.

As in past years, we require 10,000 seeds per variety, and all seeds must be bare (i.e. no seed treatments, please!). Seeds need to be received by April 11th to ensure we have enough time to package them and get them sent out to the various sites. (If you cannot make this deadline, please let me know, as seeds not received at this time run the risk of not being included in the trials.) The 2012 trials will be grown at four locations: Morden, Carman, Winkler and Portage la Prairie.

Note: These regional trials are different than the Coop trials. Anfu Hou sent out a call earlier for the Coop trials. The same varieties should not be sent to each! These regional trials are for registered varieties. The Coop trials are for up-and-coming varieties that are pursuing registration. If you are unsure which trials your varieties should be sent to, please ask myself or Anfu.

Please submit entries for the Regional Trials to Roxanne via  email or fax at 745-6213 by Thursday, March 15th at 5:00 pm.

Please submit entries for the Coop Trials to Anfu Hou by March 16th.

Once you receive confirmation, please send seeds to:

Mr. Glenn Dyck
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
Unit 100-101, Route 100
Morden, Manitoba  R6M 1Y5