Message from Board Chair

I AM HONOURED and privileged to serve you as Chair of Manitoba Pulse & Soybean Growers (MPSG), a position I have held since our last AGM. It feels good when your peers, with whom you have worked for many years, have faith in your ability to lead. Prior to this role, I served as an MPSG board member for seven years, and was vice-chair for three of those years.

I have also served on the board of Soy Canada for the last five years, a post I have found to be quite fascinating.
Soy Canada has a lot on its plate. There are many challenges associated with exporting pulses and soybeans. Tariff and non-tariff trade barriers, container shortages and a myriad of other factors come into play with respect to the crops you and I grow.

As we’ve said many times in this magazine over the years, there is a lot of behind-the-scenes activity going on inside agricultural groups. 2022 has been a year of wild market swings and challenges, keeping farm groups busy and on the edges of their seats.

MPSG has had many shining moments this year – concrete examples of the association truly serving you, its farmer members. One such moment was pushing for Manitoba Agricultural Services Corporation (MASC) to extend the soybean seeding date to the first week in June.

After talking with MASC, we combined our soybean data with theirs to create a clearer picture of what was happening in the interplay between seeding date and yield. We learned that shortening the growing season would be no problem for the varieties currently available to farmers. Most of the data by far came from MASC itself. By combining our data, insurer and insured now have common ground.

We put the MASC extension to good use on our family farm this year. We seeded most of our soybeans by June 4.  My son and daughter were impressed that we were able to still achieve an average of 48 bushels per acre crop. The research that MPSG supplies to MASC and the resulting changes to their crop insurance policies, for me, is a great example of how the investments we as farmers make into research do, in fact, pay off.

There were many more shining moments worth mentioning and you’ll hear about a lot of them as you dive into this issue of Pulse Beat.

All of MPSG’s research and other information related to the association can be accessed on the our website – manitobapulse.ca. If you need more information, feel free to contact a staff member at MPSG. They’d be more than happy to hear from you.

I wish you all a great and safe holiday season, and the clearest of heads as you tackle winter holidays, the agriculture conference season and the upcoming 2023 growing season. Until next time!