Regenerative farming: Overby shares his insight with neighbors to the north

A North Dakota grain producer has taken crop diversity to a whole new level with the addition of a wide variety of crops to a regular rotation, as he practises regenerative farming methods on his 1,800-acre farm, just south of the International Peace Gardens.

Paul Overby shared his insight with a large group of farmers at the fourth annual Regen Day hosted by the Seine Rat Roseau River Watershed District at Friedensfeld Community Centre in February.

Overby told farmers that regenerative farming practices were a way to enrich the soil and improve watersheds, while at the same time, increasing yields and resistance to climate instability.

Paul and his wife Diane operate a leading-edge regenerative agriculture farm, raising a diverse mix of canola, flax, field peas, hard red spring wheat, millet, oats, sunflowers, and soybeans.

Ritchot maintains mill rate, mayor said lowering rate “not a good thing”

The RM of Ritchot approved its 2026 budget last Wednesday with the mill rate remaining steady for the ninth year in a row at 7.95 mills, despite property value reassessments by the province last year that saw some residents’ values increasing.

“I don’t think we should ever see a lowering of the mill rate. It’s never a good thing in anything,” said Mayor Chris Ewen. “You don’t see your groceries ever go down. They continue to stay up or they stay the same. I think the same should apply for mill rates.

“We continue to keep that line. And we just take advantage of the assessment value going up and how we can implement that for a positive outcome for the municipality and the residents that are participating.”

Ewen said as the municipality continues to grow with residential, industrial, and commercial properties moving in, increased taxes collected through the increased property values will fund projects that need to be done in the RM. He said by keeping the mill rate the same, residents shouldn’t see their taxes change “dramatically.”

PHOTO GALLERY: Metal wrestling madness in Mitchell

Canadian Wrestling Elite’s “Rage in the Cage” fight night in Mitchell on April 18.

SPORTS FLASHBACK 1991: Manaigre leads Manitoba to silver at ringette nationals

Fifteen-year-old Gaetane Manaigre of Lorette was instrumental in helping the Manitoba Juniors win the silver medal at the Canadian Ringette Championships in Hull, Quebec.

It is the second silver medal Manaigre has won at the national championships in two years. As a 14-year-old at the nationals in Calgary last year, she won silver with the Eastman Flames Juniors. The Junior Division for girls, 15 and under.

Last week at Hull, Manaigre, who is a center, was the second leading scorer on the Manitoba team during the week, scoring six goals and setting up 10 others.

In the semi-finals, against Saskatchewan, Manaigre scored the tying goal, then the winner in overtime, as Manitoba won 7-6, to earn a berth in the gold medal game.

COLUMN: Tales from the Gravel Ridge – An oven that functioned well

Whether or not you need a well-functioning oven in your kitchen depends, to some degree, on the cooking and baking habits of those in your household, and more specifically, on the habits of the individual responsible for meal preparation. In our present context such responsibilities might vary from time to time and, of course, from one household to another. We have options today that weren’t always the case in the past.

In the community of my childhood, the responsibility for such an essential aspect of the needs and habits of a family fell to the mother of the home, or possibly the older daughters. During the first decade or so of my life, the community of Rosengard had no electricity. In large part, the cook-stove in our kitchen helped to heat our house. In addition to that important function, it was also vital for the preparation of all cooked and baked foods. The fact that our community did not have electricity until the late 1940s or early 1950s was not a problem for us. After all, we were not accustomed to having light and power provided to us. As long as we had a source of trees to harvest and a means of cutting them into suitable size pieces to stoke our stoves, we were set to go. Mr. D.D. Ginter was the man to go to for such services. He had a reliable wood-sawing business, and as far as I know, he was the only person in our neighbourhood who could provide that essential service.

All that to say, no matter how diverse your recipe library might be, nor to what degree your culinary skills have been developed, some source of heat is required to prepare most properly cooked meals. When you are accustomed to turning on a switch, and as a result your electric oven heats up, you are caught by surprise when no such magic happens. It’s quite intriguing how ingenious you can become if necessity asks it of you. Under such circumstances it becomes imperative that you make alternative arrangements, such as cooking a turkey on top of your electric stove. Of course that can happen only if the quandary you’re in doesn’t mean a loss of electric power altogether.

From my own experience, I can attest to the fact that my mother knew how to prepare delicious, nourishing meals. She did so day after day, and I have no doubt that the women of our neighbourhood in their own unique ways did as well. In the context of writing a paper some years ago, I interviewed members of my own family as well as others of the community regarding how their respective mothers, many decades earlier, had managed, within limited resources, to prepare satisfying meals. It was heart-warming how universally they responded somewhat along the line that, “She knew how to make it work”. Their replies and comments didn’t however come as a surprise to me. The families of our neighbourhood were not well off generally, and had managed to survive, and in their own way to thrive, during the worldwide Great Depression of the 1930s. They simply kept on doing what they had always done. After all, what were their options.

DANKOCHIK’S DRAFTINGS: Summer sports season, here we come

There’s no week I look forward to more than when I can finally step out of the hockey rink and start taking in some outdoor sports, although it’s a terrible joke this year when we could be on pace to have the first high school baseball games of the season actually not be derailed by weather, I’ll be rushing off to Virden to try and catch the potentially decisive game four of the Manitoba Junior Hockey League finals.

There’s a little bit of a practical preference for the summer sports season. The sun is the best lighting for photos you could ever wish for so to have it beating down when you’re taking high frame rate photos is so much more fun than underneath arena lights that can be lacking.

There’s also a natural desire to be outdoors after a long season inside rinks, but I think why I look forward to getting outside so much goes beyond that.

There’s a smell, a feel even a taste to outdoor sports. Cut grass and chalk, the wind on your skin, even the classic handful of sunflower seeds at a ball game. Just looking at the sky and hoping a rain cloud will skew north or south and avoid the diamond has a bit of magic as well.

COLUMN: Village News – We welcome spring

Spring in Manitoba is a wonderful time of year. Daylight hours are getting longer. The temperature is edging towards above zero for nighttime and double digits for daytime. We hear a variety of songbirds from dawn until dusk. And we begin to see grass blades, flower shoots, and tree branches becoming green as they reach for sunlight and soak in the spring rains.

At Mennonite Heritage Village we are experiencing many of the same scenes as we look forward to the May 1 opening of our outdoor village. Our facilities maintenance team is cleaning up the grounds, picking up broken branches, identifying repairs that are needed to our heritage buildings, and tuning up the mowing equipment for another busy summer. The farmyard is about to get filled with the loaned or donated animals from local farmers who are eager to support the museum. The animals are a highlight for visitors of every age.

Our curators are lining up work crews to tackle the summer projects of repairing and replacing roofs and wallboards on the heritage buildings. They are identifying pieces of equipment for our mechanically inclined volunteers who want to get another antique car or tractor operational and running this summer. And they are refurnishing the heritage buildings with curtains, rugs and mattresses to create a realistic representation of ‘the way things were’.

Inside, our retail staff is stocking the stores with local wares, the latest novel or family history by a local author, and memorabilia for our visitors who will arrive from around the province and from around the world. And our program team is organizing the school trips expected in May and June, setting up training sessions to train new blacksmiths, printers, sawyers, schnetje bakers, and museum interpreters, and they are booking music entertainers for our festivals.

AS I SEE IT COLUMN: Does Hellebuyck want out? If so, good riddance

If you saw Connor Hellebuyck’s interview last week, this much is clear: he is seriously questioning his future in Winnipeg and has doubts about the Jets ever winning the Stanley Cup, the only silverware he hasn’t yet won.

He talked about the “chaos” in front of him, complained about how many screens and tipped shots he had to deal with and questioned management’s roster decisions. Sadly but unsurprisingly, his disappointment about the season had to do with everyone except himself. Hellebuyck’s complete and utter lack of accountability, introspection and self-awareness is astonishing.

He made a comment that proved – yet again – that Hellebuyck at times can be completely unattached to reality. He had the audacity to say his game “wasn’t different before or after” the Olympics. Huh? He lost a bunch of games when he returned from Milan, when Jets fans hoped he might bring some Olympic magic to the Jets crease. Didn’t happen.

We’re not idiots Connor. You did not play as well after the Olympics as you did during. Not even close. Please don’t insult our intelligence.

COLUMN: The Carillon Flashback May 27, 1986 Reimer says education gave him a fuller life

Students today don’t appreciate the opportunity to go to school because they don’t have to make any sacrifices to get an education, according to P.J.B. Reimer of Rosenort.

Reimer, 83, who taught in the Hanover and Morris Macdonald School Divisions for 43 years, recalls how difficult it was for him to get an education and how it had been impossible for his grandfather to go to college.

Reimer was expected to follow the family tradition of farming, but his father asked the church bishop to give his youngest son permission to attend school past the age of 14. The Mennonite church the family belonged to frowned on higher education at that time, because they thought it was dangerous.

The bishop granted permission with the condition that Reimer would teach in Mennonite communities. Throughout his teaching career, Reimer adhered to that condition.

Niverville increases taxes by 2.5 percent for 2026, but lowers mill rate

The Town of Niverville approved its 2026 budget on Tuesday, which will see residents paying 2.5 percent more on their taxes than last year, but council has lowered the mill rate to 9.273 mills, compared to last year’s 11.659 mills.

“We passed a 2.5 percent tax rate increase for the community. It’s lower than inflation, and we’re able to keep it low thanks to growth,” said Mayor Myron Dyck.

“So, when your assessment moves, you can choose to either keep your mill rate the same, which means that essentially your tax rate’s going up by the same as your assessment percentage, or you can reduce the mill rate, which is what we did, to get it to 2.5 percent…And some communities are choosing to (increase the mill rate), but we chose not to,” he added when asked if council took into consideration the increase in property values as last year was a reassessment year for the province.

The increase will see residents paying $57.04 more on their property taxes if their home was valued at $399,800.

National Farmers Union hopes for organization accreditation and ag minister meeting

The National Farmers Union (NFU) is advocating for accreditation to strengthen their advocacy and better represent farms in Canada.

The NFU is an organization that advocates for policies and income security for farmers. Gaining accreditation or certification gives a union a right to negotiate terms and conditions of employment, according to the Canada Industrial Relations Board website. The other accredited union is Keystone Agriculture Producers (KAP).

“Many farm voices are being lost when they’re funnelled through one majority organization,” said Kate Storey, a member of the NFU Manitoba, noting that agriculture policies are geared towards big farms. “It leaves [some] farmers out in the cold.”

Storey said that’s because many of the policies are geared towards bigger producers and export-focused farmers, which are important, but the niche farms who sell at local farmers markets aren’t represented enough.

Pistons celebrate season at year-end banquet

While the season may have ended a little early for the Steinbach Pistons’ liking, the team still gathered April 15 at the Pat Porter Centre to recognize some outstanding achievements at their year-end banquet.

The team gathered just a few days after their game six loss to the Virden Oil Capitals in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League semi-finals to hand out awards and recognize their crop of graduating 20-year-old players.

“None of us wanted to be here today, but we are here nonetheless to celebrate a season,” head coach and general manager, who was celebrating his birthday April 15, said.

“A lot of wonderful things took place and a lot of guys had incredible years. What took place in the Southeast Event Centre this year is a celebration on its own.”

Research facilities closing raise concerns among MB farmers

Manitoba farmers and advocates are worried a slew of job cuts and farm research closures announced by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada will drive food prices up and hinder advancements in food sciences.

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) announced it would shut down seven research facilities across multiple provinces due to federal government cuts, in January 2026. In Manitoba, the Portage la Prairie research farm is closing down slowly. Around 665 jobs will be cut, according to their 2026-27 department plan.

Jennifer Seward, executive director at Manitoba Seed Growers Association, said the impacts are “overwhelming,” and ripple effects will show when “it’s too late.”

“It’s a huge deal. Consumers won’t care about it now because they won’t see an impact, but in 10 years, the food prices are going to go up more,” said Seward. “That’s because we won’t be ahead of disease cycles and the yield potential.”