Heather Prystay

Although rural residents may think the much-discussed Y2K bug will not have a great impact on them, one millennium expert is urging them to think again. The Y2K problem, or the millennium bug, refers to the fact that many older computer systems have used two digits rather than four to represent the date. The concern […] Read more

Have you noticed more raindrops falling by your window in the past few years? A study done at Agriculture Canada’s Lethbridge Research Centre has found that the Prairies get 16 more rainy days a year than it did 75 years ago. Wole Akinremi, who led the research, said annual precipitation increased by 46 millimetres between […] Read more

Prairie experts will share the finer points of beef and forage production with Ukrainian farmers. Representatives from the Saskatchewan Trade and Export Partnership joined Saskatchewan economic and co-operative development minister Janice MacKinnon and prairie businesspeople on a trade mission to Ukraine, Bulgaria, Turkey, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan Nov. 8-19. Murad Al-Katib, manager of financing services for […] Read more

Directions for a home-cooked meal: 1. Take pre-cooked chicken out of wrapper, arrange on plate. 2. Empty bag of salad into bowl, top with bottled dressing. 3. Add water to instant potato mix, stir and serve. A meal like this is becoming more popular in kitchens across the country. As the days get busier, fewer […] Read more

After years of struggling to make its products fit into the Food and Drug Act, the Canadian natural health industry will have an office to call its own. A new organization is taking shape to regulate natural health products, said Anne Ledger Wilke, director of science for the Canadian Health Food Association, at the Saskatchewan […] Read more

When you think of materials used to make a car, you might name steel, plastic, rubber and even computer parts. You can add flax to that list. Durafibre, Inc., a joint venture of Cargill Ltd., the Saskatchewan Agri-Food Equity Fund and Sask-Can Fibre Inc., has joined forces with Michigan auto parts manufacturer Cambridge Industries. The […] Read more

What do you get when you cross a goat and a spider? A bulletproof vest. This crazy riddle is actually becoming a reality, as Nexia Biotechnology Inc. works to combine the gene of a spider with the cell of a goat to produce a product called BioSteel. The silk that spiders use to make threads […] Read more

Small prairie towns are slowly fading from the map, but residents of Lake Lenore, Sask., are making sure their town endures. When the town of 325 people nearly lost its only grocery store three years ago, resident Beryl Bauer and a team of volunteers banded together to create a grocery co-op. Bauer was recently recognized […] Read more

What if you could walk into your neighborhood grocery store, pick up a package of pork chops and know exactly what that pig was fed, where it slept and how it was processed? That day is coming, according to the head of an agricultural think tank. Larry Martin, chief executive officer of the George Morris […] Read more

Farmers aren’t alone in their struggle against a sagging farm economy. Many agriculture businesses are also fighting to keep their heads above water as commodity prices drop, debt piles up and banks keep calling. “We live and die by the farmer,” said Dwight Walz, manager of Green Acres Fertilizers in Kerrobert, Sask. The business has […] Read more