Clubroot was confirmed in a field in Alberta’s Rocky View County last week, the first time the canola disease has been found in that county and one of few cases ever confirmed in the province’s south. The soil-borne disease has been steadily expanding its territory since it was first identified in an Edmonton area canola […] Read more
Barb Glen
Stories by Barb Glen
Beef producers to vote on checkoff
Alberta beef producers will vote this fall on the thorny question of whether to have a refundable or a non-refundable checkoff. Ballots can be cast by mail, in person at one of 46 Agriculture Financial Services Corp. offices in the province, or at one of the zone meetings held in October and November. Voting is […] Read more
Clubroot not always discovered at field entrance
There have been few confirmed cases of clubroot in southern Alberta but recent confirmation of the canola disease in Rocky View County, southeast of Calgary, shows the region is not immune. Clubroot leaped onto the crop disease scene in 2003, in areas around Edmonton. Since then it has steadily spread outward and has also been […] Read more
Under pressure – a WP Special Report
Supply management, particularly Canada’s dairy industry, has come under heavy scrutiny in the North American Free Trade Agreement negotiations. Western Producer reporters Barb Glen, Robert Arnason and Ed White look at the American and Canadian systems to see where problems are, where solutions might be found and what would happen if Canada adopted the U.S. […] Read more
Claims in limbo for wildfire losses
Memories of the Sept. 11, 2017, wildfire still burn deep in the minds of ranchers who lost cattle, property and grazing land. More than a year later, most of them are still awaiting compensation payments from the federal Department of National Defence, which is responsible because the fire started on Canadian Forces Base Suffield and […] Read more
People most likely vector for African swine fever
Disease progressing through Asia and Europe can ‘shatter the swine sector’: pork council veterinarian
African swine fever is a major threat to pig production worldwide and it continues to spread in China and Europe, most recently into Belgium where 4,000 pigs are to be slaughtered in efforts to control it. “It has the potential to shatter the swine sector,” said Dr. Egan Brockhoff, veterinary counsellor with the Canadian Pork […] Read more
Program aims to verify and educate producers, consumers
It’s not enough these days to raise quality cattle from which comes quality beef. Those involved must also ensure consumers and the public know the animals and the resulting product were raised in acceptable ways. The Verified Beef Production Plus program supports both those goals, said Virgil Lowe, the program’s business manager. “VBP Plus really […] Read more
Dairy farmer worked both sides of the border
PARMA, Idaho — Allan Huttema has operated dairy farms on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border. Near Chilliwack, B.C., he owned a dairy established by his grandfather who emigrated from Holland after the Second World War. He bought the farm from his father in the early 1990s. “The system was good for us. It provided […] Read more
The word is Class; the number is 7
MERIDIAN, Idaho — One word and one number form the crux of the dairy stumbling block in ongoing negotiations for a new North American Free Trade Agreement. Class 7, Canada’s recently developed pricing policy for milk protein concentrates, has reduced American milk exports to Canada at a time when U.S. milk prices are low and […] Read more
U.S. dairy farmers respond to Canadians
MERIDIAN, Idaho — There’s robust defence of supply management among Canadian dairy producers and marketing boards. They often compare the system to that of the United States, a supply-and-demand driven system that would likely be the alternative should supply management ever disappear. Among the assertions made by Canadian defenders are these: U.S. dairy producers are […] Read more
