Boxes for chicks needed redesigning and a 14 year old Canadian creates a solution, applies for patent
LANGLEY, B.C. — It all started with a 4-H project for 14-year-old Mac Dykeman. A member of a 4-H poultry club at Langley, B.C., she was often dismayed when her orders from the United States arrived with dead birds in the shipment. “I would receive them and open the box and many times find them […] Read more
Barbara Duckworth
Stories by Barbara Duckworth
Planning for weather continues to be farmers’ biggest wild card
OYEN, Alta. — It seems intuitive but weather rules everything on a grain farm. “Of all the things that might drive your yield, the weather is going to drive all of it. It is one of the things you can’t control so we plan everything around what you might expect to happen; then we pray […] Read more
Triticale attributes make for sound feed option
Crop can be planted from early spring to early June and still be swathed for grazing in September without yield loss
LETHBRIDGE — Perennial forage acres are declining across Western Canada and because of the expense of replacing them, farmers leave them in longer and the stands become less productive over time. “Those have to be replaced with something and that provides opportunity for an annual forage like triticale or barley or corn,” said forage specialist […] Read more
Food market offers opportunity, hurdle for triticale
Researchers around the world lobby governments and universities to fund efforts to develop varieties for use as food
LETHBRIDGE — Triticale is considered a good livestock feed but if growers want to expand the grain’s reach, it needs to join the human food market. “The next logical place for triticale is into food,” said Ron Kershen, a consultant with Watley Seeds in the United States. “It is extremely expensive to develop a new […] Read more
Triticale considered good option for arid, semi-arid areas
LETHBRIDGE — Bryan Corns started growing triticale in the 1990s and today it dominates his operation in southern Alberta. Triticale is a cross between wheat and rye and it was not so popular when he started growing it. “It had a poor cousin approach to crops in general,” he said at a recent triticale symposium […] Read more
Soil work begins with microscopic assessments
Lab research helps farmers understand the life underground as a first step toward improving the health of the soil
OYEN, Alta. — Yamily Zavala gets excited every time she identifies a new life form under her microscope. Squirming nematodes, fungi, bacteria and amoeba indicate there is a circle life in the soil to rebuild structure and help grow healthy plants on the surface. The head of the Chinook Applied Research Association (CARA) Soil Health […] Read more
Direct marketing keeps Alberta ranch busy
Long Run Ranch Beef sets brisk pace with online and farmers market sales as it keeps up with demand for local product
CROSSFIELD, Alta. — Kevin and Amy Taks are ranchers for modern times. Based at Crossfield, north of Calgary, the family-run operation began direct-marketing beef and found the demand was so high for local, dry-aged product, they had to build an on-farm freezer to supply their customers year round. “The more we talked to consumers there […] Read more
New barley varieties receive day in the sun
Alberta field tour gives maltsters and brewers a chance to learn about the origins of their most important ingredient
RED DEER COUNTY, Alta. — If there are no farmers, there is no beer. With that in mind a special tour organized by the Alberta Barley Commission and the Canadian Malting Barley Technical Centre showed local and international maltsters and brewers where it all starts in the field. Established varieties like AC Metcalfe and CDC […] Read more
Garbage turned into diesel
ALDERSYDE, Alta. — It is garbage in and diesel out at Cielo Waste Solutions. The company has perfected technology to process and distill waste products into high grade diesel fuel for airplanes, highway trucks and ocean liners. Located at Aldersyde, Alta., south of Calgary, the technology has been in the works for about 15 years, […] Read more
U.S. beef group pushes for national cattle tracing system
As a livestock auction market owner from Tennessee, Jennifer Houston understands the value of traceability. In her role as president of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, she understands the apprehension among some members to adopt a nation-wide cattle traceability system. “We have a portion of animal disease traceability already,” she said in an interview during […] Read more
