When it comes to growing better beef, researchers, packers and feedlots know it all starts with the people who are raising the cattle. Top producers know their animals. They keep records and they use tools like artificial insemination from proven bulls to improve their herds. “Breed didn’t matter a damn. The breeder matters,” said Dave […] Read more
Barbara Duckworth
Stories by Barbara Duckworth
You can lead a horse to water, but how often?
RED DEER, Alta. – When it comes to water and horses, researchers agree on one thing: Nobody knows enough about it. “A lot is based on anecdotes over time but we can’t base welfare issues on anecdotes,” said one Manitoba researcher at the recent horse breeders seminar in Red Deer. Most research on the subject […] Read more
Trailer care reduces injuries
RED DEER, Alta. – David Wilson is a horse lover who learned how to repair trailers because he couldn’t find anyone else to do it properly. Now horse trailer repair has turned into his vocation at Santa Rosa, California. He has seen many problems over the years that could be prevented with proper maintenance, he […] Read more
Emotion pushes rancher to action
Rick Burton came to town with a week-old beard and a fire in his belly. The Claresholm rancher showed up at the inaugural meeting of the Alberta Grazing Leaseholders Association to see what was going on, and somebody talked him into running as a director. In his campaign speech he promised to shave and keep […] Read more
Leases avoid U.S.-style problems
Alberta’s grazing lease system evolved from the Dominion Lands Act of 1876. Six years earlier, the government of Canada took over Rupert’s Land and Northwest Territories when the Hudson’s Bay Company surrendered its charter to the Queen in 1869. Large cattle herds were already grazing the Prairies in the 1870s, but there were no formal […] Read more
Tips for home-like hog barns
BANFF, Alta. – With the number of new hog barns being built in Western Canada, owners soon learn they must smooth some rough edges in the construction and staff. “Barns are being built by people who have no knowledge of building pig barns,” said Ciaran Ormond of Partners in Pork of Rimbey, Alta. He has […] Read more
Hog plants jostling
BANFF, Alta. – The Canadian pork industry is experiencing the same rush as the beef industry did a decade ago when smaller packers closed or merged with larger, more technologically efficient ones. More changes are likely if there is further expansion in Canadian hog production, said economist Jill Hobbs of the George Morris Centre. “You […] Read more
Even prudent hog producers feel market squeeze
RED DEER, Alta. – For the first time in 39 years of farming, Ralph Smith will not pay income tax. This mixed farmer sells about 1,000 finished hogs a year off his farm in Fort Saskatchewan, Alta., and has never experienced anything like the price declines of the last quarter of 1998. Yet his story […] Read more
Standards set for intensive livestock operations
New legislation that sets uniform standards for intensive livestock operations in Alberta has been recommended. The recommendations are based on public comment compiled by a government-appointed advisory group representing public health, agriculture and municipalities. If these recommendations go forward the municipalities will continue to approve land-use decisions and provide building permits. The province will be […] Read more
Lethbridge area gets fry plant
McCain Foods says its $93.9 million french fry potato processing plant will be located in the County of Lethbridge. McCain announced the plant in the fall of 1998, but did not have a site selected. It said last week the site will be about 12 kilometres east of Coaldale, near Chin, Alta., adjacent to Highway […] Read more
