Opinion
By Cam Dahl, common supervisor for Manitoba Pork
It’s not your great-granddaddy’s farm anymore. Whereas some might have nostalgia for the outdated farm with a bit purple barn that housed just a few chickens, a few pigs, and a dairy cow, it’s higher for each the atmosphere and the economic system that agriculture has modernized. Immediately’s farmer has taken, and is taking, key steps to guard our pure sources whereas sustaining financial sustainability. Farmers are a important a part of creating the options to in the present day’s environmental challenges whereas fostering financial development and job growth.
Being a part of the environmental resolution contains resolving the algae drawback in Lake Winnipeg. Folks throughout the nation are involved concerning the well being of the lake. Vitamins are fertilizing algae blooms that devour the oxygen within the water, which in flip hurt fish populations and different pure life within the lake. Algae lined seashores restrict everybody’s enjoyment of the lake and hurt companies that depend on Manitoba’s brief vacationer season. There have been numerous research and motion plans however fixing this complicated drawback stays elusive.
Some have pointed a finger at Manitoba’s farmers as contributing to the issues at Lake Winnipeg. This ignores the numerous strides that agriculture has taken to make sure that the proper vitamins are put in the proper place and on the proper time to maximise crop development and restrict nutrient runoff. Gone are the times of the little purple barn the place manure was unfold on the floor with out realizing its nutrient content material, or the place fertilizer was utilized with out realizing what the crops wanted.
Modernization of agriculture has revolutionized nutrient administration. Take in the present day’s hog operations in Manitoba for instance. Earlier than making use of manure, farmers are required to file manure administration plans with the provincial authorities. These nutrient administration plans are tailor-made to the precise crop being grown and embrace soil sampling to assist forestall the over software of vitamins. Over 90 p.c of hog manure in Manitoba is injected under the soil floor, or included into the soil instantly after software to forestall runoff and to place this precious nutrient subsequent to the seed the place it’s wanted. Earlier than software, the manure itself is sampled to present an correct understanding of its nutrient content material.
Advances in know-how are making the appliance of manure extra exact. Fashionable gear can take a look at the movement because the manure is being utilized, utilizing close to infrared know-how, and fluctuate software charges on a real-time foundation. Farmers use world positioning know-how, ultrasonic pace sensors, and radar to make sure that manure is utilized in the proper place and on the proper fee. The know-how that’s permitting farmers to maximise the advantages of this pure fertilizer can be serving to to reduce nutrient leaching into waterways, together with Lake Winnipeg. Comparable advances in precision farming are permitting those that use artificial fertilizers to use plant diet in a means that maximizes its worth.
Fashionable agriculture is utilizing plant diet extra exactly and effectively whereas decreasing the potential for adverse environmental impacts and producing extra meals for customers in Canada and all over the world. That is what being a part of the answer means to Manitoba’s farmers.
Being a part of the answer may imply taking motion past the farm. Farmers are ready to do that and able to take part in a broad effort to develop options to the challenges dealing with Lake Winnipeg. As a primary step we have to carry collectively experience from all components of the Lake Winnipeg basin – name this the Lake Winnipeg Process Group. The Process Group, which could be referred to as collectively by the Province of Manitoba, ought to embrace representatives from livestock agriculture, representatives from grain and oilseed farmers, representatives from First Nations, and representatives from Manitoba municipalities, together with the Metropolis of Winnipeg. The Process Group also needs to embrace third-party scientific experience to steer the discussions.
The Process Group must be given a mandate to stipulate science-based measures which might be designed to cut back nutrient movement into the lake. Among the potential motion gadgets have already been mentioned, reminiscent of rehabilitating marshes that filter incoming water, guaranteeing untreated sewage doesn’t movement into the Pink River, and rising the understanding of the “proper supply, proper place, proper fee, and proper time” rules for nutrient software in agriculture. The Process Group must be charged with presenting methods of breaking down obstacles to the adoption of those identified options in addition to new concepts to maintain Lake Winnipeg wholesome. And eventually, the Process Group must be ahead wanting and motion oriented, somewhat than a physique that rehashes the finger pointing that occurred previously.
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