Manitoba’s Far Mer jaileD outstanDing Young FarMers For starving 2014 » Page 3 cattle » Page 13 February 13, 2014 Srne Vi G manitoba FarmerS Since 1925 | Vol. 72, no. 7 | $1.75 manitobacooperator.ca Do you have a licence for Pilot Mound prosciutto that pig? The Manitoba Pork Council continues to makers start over search for ways to instill Dried meat seizure off the farm last summer brought a simmering debate to a boil greater stability in the swine sector By Lorraine Stevenson co-operator staff By Shannon VanRaes co-operator staff ix months after food inspectors raided their on- he search for greater Sfarm meat shop and seized stability in province’s their award-winning pro- T hog industry has led the sciutto, a Pilot Mound couple Manitoba Pork Council to put has learned all charges against forward a proposed system of them have been dropped. producer licences. Clint and Pam Cavers, Although in the early stages whose old-world-style sau- of development, general man- sage earned top honours at ager Andrew Dickson shared the Great Manitoba Food Fight the concept with producers at last year, have also been given the annual Swine Seminar in the green light to go back into Winnipeg last week. production. “We’ve done a lot around s ee PIG LICENCE on page 6 » here to try and work with MAFRD to make this come out well for everybody,” said a relieved Clinton Cavers last week. “We’re probably now within a month from being able to start producing pro- sciutto again.” Upgrades to their facility, including new equipment and other revisions to comply with food safety regulations have been approved in writing by two inspectors from Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Pam and Clinton Cavers are eager to start making their value-added meat product again. photo: lorraine stevenson Development who visited their meat shop in January, he said. The Cavers say they will provincial department that (company) and I need to make That leaves them confident have spent considerably more later stopped them from mak- a living,” she said. they won’t face a similar prob- than that by the time the meat ing prosciutto, was put towards The Cavers’ predicament lem in the future. shop’s renovations are done, hiring Food Development caused a simmering debate “We got caught in this trap but the price tag isn’t the Centre consultants to teach over how food regulations are before, where everybody would $100,000 they initially antici- them how to document Good implemented in Manitoba say, ‘just do this, and then we’ll pated last fall when the raid on Manufacturing Practices to boil over, as proponents come and tell you if it’s OK,’” their farm thrust them into a (GMPs), said Pam Cavers. of locally produced and he said. “Now (they can’t) come media spotlight. It’s going to be onerous to processed food rose to their and tell us we need to spend Their $10,000 prize for win- keep on top of it all, she said. defence. another $10,000 on something ning the Great Manitoba Food “We’re working on it. They’re else they didn’t think of.” Fight, sponsored by the same not easy. And I am a still little s ee PILOT MOUND on page 6 » Publication Mail Agreement 40069240 BULK UP NOW. EARN UP TO $1.00/ACRE MORE. High-performance cereal herbicides. Convenient BULK UP savings. Even more Grower Dividends. Calculate your Dividends at dowagrodividends.ca today. Deadlines March 20, 2014 TandemTM, SimplicityTM, Liquid AchieveTM, AttainTM XC, OcTTainTM XL, FrontlineTM XL, PrestigeTM XC, StellarTM REWARDING HIGHER PERFORMANCE ® TM Trademark of The Dow Chemical Company (“Dow”) or an affiliated company of Dow. 02/142262602 MC 2 The Manitoba Co-operator | February 13, 2014 INE SiD Di D you know? L iVESToCk IBM rolls out “Swab and test” ‘Watson’ in Africa That’s the new motto t he supercomputer can talk to humans and analyze massive data for hog producers trying to keep PEDv out 12 b y tim cocks L RTaGoS / eU eRS BM began rolling out its Watson super- computer system across Africa on Feb. CRoPS I 5, saying it would help make agriculture smarter and address continental devel- opment obstacles as diverse as medical diagnoses, economic data collection and More than a e-commerce research. The world’s biggest technology service numbers game provider said “Project Lucy” would take 10 Deciding when or years and cost $100 million. The undertak- whether to spray is a ing was named after the earliest-known human ancestor fossil, which was found in complex decision 17 IBM chairwoman and CEO Virginia “Ginni” Rometty east Africa, “I believe it will spur a whole era of inno- speaks at an IBM Watson conference — the com- vation for entrepreneurs here,” IBM chief pany’s new supercomputer, in lower Manhattan, executive Ginni Rometty told delegates at a New York Jan. 9, 2014. PHoTo: ReUTeRS/BRenDan McDeRMiD conference. FEATuRE As an example, Rometty cited how opment they have failed to reach because Morocco had used sophisticated data min- they were too expensive, in much the same U.S. farmers get ing for “smart agriculture” to improve how way mobile phones took off across the crops are grown by predicting weather, continent in places where there had been climate “hubs” demand and disease outbreaks. virtually no landlines, said Michel Bézy, a The Watson system, named after former Rwanda-based technology professor who Their government IBM president Thomas Watson uses arti- helped develop the Watson system. is getting serious ficial intelligence that can quickly ana- It could help with education in schools about climate change 23 lyze huge amounts of data and under- that have few computer resources by adaptation stand human language well enough to using smartphone apps that get access to hold sophisticated conversations. It beat Watson’s analytical tools through cloud humans on the TV quiz show “Jeopardy” in computing, IBM’s chief Africa research sci- 2011. entist Uyi Stewart told Reuters in Lagos. International Business Machines Corp. Roads in countries like Nigeria are often CRoSSRoADS has so far failed to convert that genius into so poorly maintained, traffic clogged or substantial revenue growth, with the sys- flooded that it is impossible to predict how tem contributing just $100 million over long a journey will take. Stewart said the the past three years as overall revenues system would help logistics companies Vinegar declined. by telling them where potholes are, which Valentines The technology would enable poorer junctions are choke points and whether it parts of Africa to “leapfrog” stages of devel- is raining. More sour than sweet, they were not sent to someone you liked 28 READER’S PHOTO Editorials 4 Grain Markets 11 Comments 5 Weather Vane 16 What’s Up 8 Classifieds 38 Livestock Markets 10 Sudoku 42 ONn Li E Visit www.manitobacooperator.ca for daily news and features and our digital edition. (Click on “Digital Edition” in the top right corner.) At our sister site, AGCanada.com, you can use the “Search the AGCanada.com Network” function at top right to find recent Co-operator articles. 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R3H 0H1 204-944-5763 204-944-5751 The Manitoba Co-operator | February 13, 2014 3 MBP votes to boost coffers Increase to voluntary checkoff levy could boost annual revenues by nearly $500,000 By Daniel Winters MBP has five full-time staff money back,” said Atchison. co-operator staff including Dahl, who will be leav- “Hopefully, if they do that, they ing MBP to become president of can also send us a letter to tell us attle prices may be soaring Cereals Canada in March.