Jason Rempel, Marg’s son and partner on the farm, has used the 3D printer behind him to make a bracket
for mounting a camera on their grain cart to make it easier to line up the auger.
development. Today, the mother-and-son team operate a very
interesting – perhaps even eclectic – operation.
Rempelco Acres, southeast of Winnipeg near Landmark,
is a mixed farm consisting of 500 sows – about 5,000 when
birth-to-market-weight hogs are added – and 1,600 acres of
crop land. It also raises meat goats, and pastures chickens
most years, for direct sales to consumers, which it also does
with some of its pigs.
In addition, Marg and Jason
experimented this year with a quarter
section of peola: a field intercropped
with peas and canola.
It’s the first time they ever tried
peas, which tend to develop mold and
mildew in southeastern Manitoba.
But the canola provides a stock for
the peas to climb, keeping them off
the moist ground, and the peas pay
back the canola with a booster shot
of nitrogen fertilizer. The Rempels
lowered their input costs by having to
fertilize just one field instead of two.
“The crop was reasonable,” Marg
said. Like a lot of things this year, it
could have used a few more inches of
rain at the right time.
“The soil sample, however, did not
get taken prior to the fall rainfall, so
we still do not have the information
as to how much nitrogen might be left
in the soil for next year. And that’s a number we need to know
before understanding the financial pluses and minuses of this
particular experiment in intercropping.”
“We’re kind of experimenting sort of people,” said Marg, in
an interview in her living room.
That would help explain the 3D printer in Marg’s
basement. Farmers are always intrigued by technology to
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WEEKLY ALERT
News from the Voice of Manitoba Farmers
4 § Manitoba Farmers’ Voice § Fall 2019
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