If Lynn Cornwell could work out a deal with his banker and an Alberta feedlot, the Montana cow-calf producer would have a load of feeder calves ready for export tomorrow. For Cornwell, who ranches near Glasgow, the Northwest Pilot Project is the most sensible idea he has heard in a long while. The deal allows […] Read more
Barbara Duckworth
Stories by Barbara Duckworth
American company moves north to trade in Canadian feed grain
With only four employees in its Calgary office, Scoular Canada is trading more than one million bushels of grain per month without elevators or Canadian Wheat Board connections. The company came to Calgary a year ago and focuses on Western Canada’s active feed grain trade. It started dealing in barley, feed wheat, oats and canola […] Read more
Beef industry takes steps to insure food safety
BILLINGS, Mont. – When organic beef is promoted as chemical free, equal time should be given to conventional beef because it is just as clean, says an American meat scientist. In response to charges by the European Union that American meat is full of chemical and hormone residues, the United States Department of Agriculture tested […] Read more
Canadian bison plant site decided next fall
The North American Bison Co-operative will decide next summer where in Western Canada to locate its proposed slaughter plant . “We will be doing our equity drive sometime this summer and depending on the outcome of that, the site will be announced after that,” said Dennis Sexhus, the group’s chief operating officer. The co-op now […] Read more
Cattle producers want to beef up grades
BILLINGS, Mont. – New ways to more accurately assess beef carcasses is one of the newest research directions for American meat scientists. The American beef industry has set goals to introduce mechanical grading and to raise cattle that consistently fit into the top grades. Instrument grading systems using computers have been under development for several […] Read more
Southern Alberta water worrisome
LETHBRIDGE, Alta. – When water transforms from cold, clear mountain streams to murky rivers loaded with contaminants, it raises alarm for city and rural people alike. It’s especially frightening when public health officers periodically tell communities to boil their drinking water because of elevated levels of bacteria that could cause a host of stomach upsets. […] Read more
Rusty grain beetles on the move
By the begining of December, the Canadian Grain Commission had received more reports of rusty grain beetle infestations than it did in all of 1996-97. “We already surpassed what we found in all of last crop year, and we are only a third of the way through the year,” said Blaine Timlick, grain commission entomologist. […] Read more
Government to kick in $2 million for municipality, farmers’ costs
About $2 million in government aid is headed for southern Alberta to cover some of the costs of a devastating prairie fire that left the foothills looking like a moonscape. Money will be administered by Alberta Agriculture and the disaster services branch of Alberta transportation and utilities department. Disaster services is covering: Municipal emergency operations […] Read more
Fire victims receive outpouring of help
An unprecedented winter prairie fire that destroyed 70,000 acres of southern Alberta rangeland has brought out the Christmas spirit. For those who lost their homes, cattle, hay and grain, the relief effort has gone beyond their expectations, said Thane Hurlburt. He and his wife Joy, along with other volunteers, are co-ordinating donations and receiving goods […] Read more
Freak fire razes farms
When Stan and Clara Byer looked out their farmhouse window last Sunday afternoon they noticed smoke along the horizon toward Cowley. They never dreamed the fast-moving prairie fire would travel about 50 kilometres and reach their Granum farm. “We could see the smoke and we weren’t concerned until a woman came rushing in and told […] Read more
