Diane Rogers

Saskatchewan farmer Tammy Crone does not want her kids mixing with urban students from Moose Jaw. She is campaigning against the amalgamation of the Moose Jaw school division with her rural Thunder Creek division. “City kids are different. My kids have more responsibility,” Crone said. “I was a city kid. I see city kids are […] Read more

Rural Alberta is better off since its school boards were merged eight years ago, says Michele Mulder, president of the Alberta School Boards Association. In 1994, the province said 141 boards were too many and ordered them to find marriage partners. “Disgruntled acceptance” was how the boards handled the news, but most “decided they would […] Read more

In movies, the sequel seldom lives up to the legacy of the first film. The same dithering and weakened purpose are affecting the third conference of world rural women that is to be held in October in Spain. “We don’t know if any NFU women will attend because of concerns about its value,” said Shannon […] Read more

Most rural Saskatchewanians are drinking water that smells, tastes or looks bad, or can cause health problems. That’s the unanimous conclusion of three water experts at last month’s annual meeting of the Saskatchewan Conservation and Development Association Inc. “More than 300,000 Saskatchewan people are relying on private wells and 99.6 percent of those wells exceed […] Read more

The best defence against water that can make people or livestock sick is a layered one. The multi-barrier approach suggested by Darrell Corkal of the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration includes: protecting the water source from contamination; oxidation to remove iron and manganese; sedimentation and filters to clear out large particles; an ion exchanger to deal […] Read more

Beavers will be short of water when the Red Willow Pork Farm goes looking to recharge its dugout this spring. If runoff stays sparse, the 1,200-sow operation northeast of Stettler, Alta., plans to blow up a couple of beaver dams to get water, says manager Shawn Charbonneau. “We don’t have anything to back us up. […] Read more

Some of the people who laughed at the idea of a water co-operative are coming back to see Larry Clark. He is chair of a water co-op that gets Red Deer River water treated by the town of Stettler, Alta., piped out into the country. The co-op started four years ago and Clark said he […] Read more

TULLIBY LAKE, Alta. – Stan and Dorothy Walterhouse quit raising cattle twice before they were named the cattle producers of the year in November 2000 by the Lloydminster exhibition association. In 1978, their herd of 243 was destroyed after one cow was diagnosed with brucellosis. It was a year before they could have cattle on […] Read more

Cleverness in the workshop is often all that is needed to keep an injured person farming. Murray McWilliams, a speaker at a conference on disability issues, lost his right leg on a Regina district farm when he was four. He said when he needed an adaptation to do his work on the farm, “Dad and […] Read more

The federal government will provide $2.8 million over the next year for community projects that enhance rural Canadians’ quality of life. Andy Mitchell, federal minister responsible for rural development, made the announcement April 6 in Charlottetown, P.E.I., at the second annual National Rural Conference. Grant applications must be submitted by Oct. 31. For more information, […] Read more