Inside agriculture | Producer group hopes to engage customers with series of YouTube videos
Saskatchewan egg producers want consumers to know more about how they operate. Several of the province’s 67 registered producers have participated in videos that take viewers inside barns and grading facilities. Shawn Harman, a third generation producer at Section 7 Farms near Humboldt, said not many people have the chance to see inside a barn […] Read more
Karen Briere
Stories by Karen Briere
Explosion at canola plant in Yorkton – updated
An explosion and fire in the canola meal pellet storage area at a Yorkton, Sask., crush plant today has caused extensive damage. Photographs posted to social media sites showed a charred building at the Louis Dreyfus plant after a loud bang around 8:30 a.m. Firefighters put out the initial fire and remained on the scene […] Read more
Small farms generate $500 million in receipts
Largest industry | About 1,400 farms on P.E.I. are facing pressure from expansion as urban residents now outnumber rural
CHARLOTTETOWN — Agriculture is a big industry on this small island. Prince Edward Island has only 620,000 agricultural acres, compared to 60 million in Saskatchewan, but the industry is the largest contributor to the provincial economy. “Agriculture has played a vital role in our province’s identity and it continues to be our biggest industry,” said […] Read moreVoice of Sask. crop report dies
Long-time Saskatchewan agrologist Grant McLean has died. McLean, who from 2009 until his retirement in 2013 was the face and voice of the provincial crop report, died Oct. 9 in Moose Jaw. He was 67. He spent his entire career with the ministry, beginning as an assistant ag rep in Swift Current in 1971 before […] Read more
Fresh market supplier challenged by processors
Potato supply | Demand for potatoes from large processors has forced P.E.I.’s Mid-Isle Farms to contract acres
ALBANY, P.E.I. — Cavernous storage buildings stood open earlier this month awaiting the millions of pounds of potatoes that Prince Edward Island farmers would soon deliver. Harvest usually happens in September, but a cold spring delayed seeding and pushed harvest to October. Staff at Mid-Isle Farms expect to receive and process 40 million pounds, said […] Read moreDate set for Sask. byelection
Voters in Lloydminster will go to the polls Nov. 13 to elect a new MLA. Tim McMillan, who had represented the Saskatchewan constituency since 2007, recently stepped down from cabinet and elected office to head the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. The province is required to hold a byelection within six months of a vacancy […] Read more
Farm leaders locked down during Ottawa attack
Like so many others, Martin Harry first thought the noise he heard in Parliament Hill’s Centre Block yesterday morning was from construction. But when a security guard told the group he was with to get down, he realized it was much worse. The entire SeCan staff, along with several spouses, spent 12 hours locked down […] Read more
Sask. ag minister diagnosed with cancer
Saskatchewan agriculture minister Lyle Stewart is taking a break from his duties to undergo treatment for prostate cancer. He told his caucus colleagues and reporters today that he had been diagnosed this summer and that the best treatment could be obtained in Ottawa. “I’m very confident in the course of treatment,” Stewart told reporters. “I […] Read more
Sask. throne speech features little ag
There appears to be little on the agenda for agriculture in the upcoming Saskatchewan legislative session. The speech from the throne, delivered this afternoon, notes the contribution of the sector — $4.5 billion to the gross domestic product and 50,000 direct and indirect jobs — but doesn’t set out any new initiatives or programs. The […] Read more
Farm leaders caught up in Ottawa shootings
The president of the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan is in the middle of the Ottawa lockdown. Norm Hall said via Twitter that he and other Canadian Federation of Agriculture board members were in Ottawa today for meetings when the shootings and resulting lockdown of the downtown area occurred. The crisis began when a soldier […] Read more
