In a few weeks time a group of South Korean businesspeople will be visiting Canada to observe meat processing and cattle production. Because of foot-and-mouth outbreaks in South Korea and Japan, they will be provided with clean clothes and shoes at the Vancouver airport. Upon arrival at their hotel, all their laundry will be washed […] Read more
Barbara Duckworth
Stories by Barbara Duckworth
Scholarship remembers victim
A new $3 million scholarship for post-secondary students has been named after Jason Lang in memory of the 17-year-old Taber high school student killed in a school shooting last April. The scholarship will distribute $3 million annually to Alberta’s top post-secondary students who achieve an average of 80 percent or higher in their first year […] Read more
Inspection agency wants to end bred heifer imports
The movement of American bred heifers into Canadian breeding herds under the guise of the restricted feeder program has prompted an audit of the program by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. “Cows being brought in under the guise of feeder cows and then being sold as breeding stock doesn’t fit the spirit of the program,” […] Read more
CWB maverick stays the course
INNISFAIL, Alta. Ð It has been a frustrating year for Jim Chatenay. As one of 10 farmer-elected directors to the Canadian Wheat Board, the maverick from Red Deer continues his fight for a voluntary wheat board. Along the way he has learned to adjust to the closed world of a board member. “It’s been an […] Read more
CWB member stands firm on voluntary system
INNISFAIL, Alta. – Jim Chatenay wears a handpainted tie featuring stands of grain against a mountain backdrop. Clipped to it is a lone silver bull. “This is me,” he says, jabbing his thumb at the clip. It has been a fretful year for the stocky Red Deer farmer who sits on the Canadian Wheat Board […] Read more
U.S. dairy industry riddled with supports, debates
RED DEER – Milk may be the perfect food, but governments have soured it with less than perfect policies, says an American dairy analyst. “Dairy policy is the single most complicated policy that we have for a commodity in the U.S.,” said Scott Brown of the University of Missouri at the recent western Canadian dairy […] Read more
Robin Hood wins at Calgary bull sale’s 100th
When five-year-old Ronnie Hanson ran down the alleys of the Calgary bull sale barns in 1944, he never dreamed he would still be attending the sale in 2000 with his five grandchildren. The bull sale veteran has never missed a sale and claims to remember every champion that walked through the sawdust. To mark the […] Read more
Cochrane vet has seen plenty of bull at Calgary sale
The 2,000 pound behemoth eyes Brian Edge. Brian Edge eyes the behemoth. He has seen this kind of bull before. He looks over the legs, runs his meaty fingers over the ribs and makes the bull walk in a wide circle. And, for the coup de grace, Edge swishes back the tail to have a […] Read more
Family legacy still evident at Calgary sale
It was fitting to mark the centennial of the Calgary Bull Sale with a champion named Landmark, bred by the grandson of one of the sale founders. BP Landmark 126H, a 2,400 pound bull owned by Donald Cross, was named grand champion Hereford. Cross is grandson of A.E. Cross, who helped start the bull sale […] Read more
Producers skittish about cattle ID
INNISFAIL, Alta. – Seven hundred glowering cattle producers streamed into the Innisfail Auction Market last week to discuss a cattle identification program that will be mandatory by the end of the year. The building reverberated with the same angry comments that have been heard across the Prairies this winter as ranchers grow increasingly uneasy over […] Read more
