Colleen Hawkesford

The gales of change that have rearranged the landscape of the prairie farm economy in recent years also have hit the university and college campuses where the next generation of industry players is being educated. Faculties at agricultural schools have been forced to ask themselves some hard questions about whether their teaching and curricula have […] Read more

With one eye on the changing farm economy and another on the demands of students wanting to break into the industry, Western Canada’s agricultural schools are being forced to change their focus. “The (loss of the) Crow Benefit has been just one more change that’s part of prairie agriculture in the past period of time,” […] Read more

Sisters Bobbi and Leah Pulfer, students at the University of Saskatchewan’s College of Agriculture, have no complaints about the new pressure to combine business and management studies with traditional agricultural training. Bobbi recognizes farming is a business. “(It’s) not just putting the seed in the ground and hoping it’ll grow, any more,” said the third-year […] Read more

On campuses across the Prairies, spaces at agricultural schools are a hot ticket these days. As news spreads that a growing food industry sector is offering jobs to graduates, places in agricultural schools are in demand. It has allowed agricultural schools to raise their academic demands. “We find that students are perhaps a little more […] Read more

Derek Foss, a third-year agronomy student at the University of Saskatchewan, figures he knows where the jobs are. “I’ll be trying to get a job in sales or as an agrologist,” he said. Foss worked during the past two summers for a Calgary-based chemical company which manufactures seed protectants. “If you get a job in […] Read more

Imagine orchards in Saskatchewan. That’s the hope of researchers from the crop science and plant ecology department at the University of Saskatchewan and the federal government’s Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration in Indian Head. They’re looking into large-scale production of a plant called sea-buckthorn, commonly found in shelterbelts and backyards on the Prairies. “We want to […] Read more

SASKATOON – The prairie patchwork of fields may have less yellow in it if researchers are successful in developing a petal-less canola. Researchers at Zeneca Seeds in Winnipeg have been looking into producing a petal-less canola resistant to sclerotinia, a disease that can cut yield by as much as 20 percent. “The crop is really […] Read more

SASKATOON – Saskatchewan’s air ambulance service has added another airplane to its ranks. “This will strengthen this important provincial program which, as you know, ensures all residents have rapid access to critical care,” said provincial health minister Eric Cline, who attended the announcement at the John G. Diefenbaker airport in Saskatoon. The cost to buy, […] Read more

COLGATE, Sask. – There’s a crimson dot in the sea of wheat that blankets southern Saskatchewan. It’s the South Side Berry Farm at Colgate where owners Wayne and Veronica McLeod farm about 15 acres of market gardens. Colgate, about 30 kilometres south of Weyburn, has about 35 citizens, “counting the dogs and cats,” joked Wayne. […] Read more

SASKATOON – Riding Mountain National Park in Manitoba plans to sell off some of its bison next week. “We have to maintain numbers,” said Jonah Mitchell, park warden. “They’re fenced in to a finite area and if we were to let them reproduce naturally they’d quickly eat themselves out of house and home.” The park […] Read more