SASKATOON —American cattle producers have decisions to make this spring after last year’s devastating drought, says Cattlefax analyst Lance Zimmerman. The dry conditions were the second worst in recorded history behind only 1934, he told the Saskatchewan Beef Industry Conference Jan. 23. The widespread drought also came after several years of smaller droughts. Zimmerman said […] Read more
Karen Briere
Stories by Karen Briere
Sask. NDP prepares to vote for new leader
More than 11,000 Saskatchewan residents are eligible to vote in the upcoming NDP leadership contest. The deadline to buy a membership was Jan. 25. The party said the number was up from 8,000 last year. However, there are 3,000 fewer voters than there were during the 2009 leadership convention that elected Dwain Lingenfelter. And the […] Read more
Sask. resumes poultry exports to Taiwan
Sask. resumes poultry exports to Taiwan
Saskatchewan poultry producers have regained access to the Taiwanese market after a five-year trade ban. Federal agriculture minister Gerry Ritz announced Feb. 1 that Taiwan had lifted the ban imposed after avian influenza was found in a Sask-atchewan barn in September 2007. No further cases of the reportable disease were found, and the province has […] Read more
Pasture patrons fail to sway at SCA
Community pastures | Cattlemen’s association won’t back new community pasture lobby effort
Some federal pasture patrons came away frustrated from the recent Saskatchewan Cattlemen’s Association annual meeting. Only one of three resolutions they put on the floor during the meeting was passed, and the chair of the new Community Pasture Patron’s Association of Saskatchewan says the challenge ahead is to bring attention to all the issues surrounding […] Read moreFood security institute appoints board members
Three directors have been named to the founding board of the Global Institute for Food Security in Saskatoon. Potash Corp chair Dallas Howe, provincial deputy agriculture minister Alanna Koch and former University of Saskatchewan president Peter MacKinnon are the first directors to be named. Three more will be nominated and appointed this year. The institute’s […] Read more
Benefits seen in land partnership
Sharing risks and rewards | Saskatchewan-based business links landowners who don’t want to farm with producers who want to work more acres but can’t afford the land
Bryce Thompson has a stake in more than 50,000 acres but doesn’t own a single one of them. Instead, the president of groPartners Inc. matches landowners and farmers to form partnerships that benefit all three parties. They all share the risks and rewards through the model that Thompson, an agrologist and certified crop adviser, established […] Read more
Sask. pasture users want transfer delay
60 pastures in province | Patrons of the federal pastures have questions about forming partnerships to buy the land
SASKATOON — Cattle producers using federal community pastures in Saskatchewan want to delay the transfer of the first 10 from government to users. Representatives from 56 pastures met in Saskatoon Jan. 23 to form the Community Pasture Patron’s Association of Saskatchewan to lobby for the delay. Not all the pastures have joined the new group. […] Read moreAgreement reached on control zones for disease
Animal disease outbreaks won’t disrupt trade between Canada and the United States once a new zoning agreement comes into effect. However, the implementation of that agreement could be a year or two away. Federal agriculture minister Gerry Ritz announced Jan. 16 that the two countries have agreed to recognize each other’s control measures in the […] Read more
Busy farm family takes lead role in charity
Close to home | Saskatchewan family works to raise awareness of diabetes and funds for research
RUSH LAKE, Sask. — Darren Steinley is eating a quick lunch between the morning and afternoon halves of a rural municipality council meeting. His wife, Michelle, has left work early at Agriculture Canada’s Semiarid Prairie Agricultural Research Centre (SPARC) in Swift Current, Sask., picked up sons Andrew, 13, and Noah, 10, at their school in […] Read moreGroup demands government keep crown pastures
Range management | Conservationists don’t want government-owned pastures privatized
A group that recently formed to urge the Saskatchewan government to keep former federal community pastures is not opposed to grazing, a spokesperson said last week. Trevor Herriot, well-known conservationist and author, said Public Pastures-Public Interest just wants to make sure the grasslands continue to serve broader interests as well. “We want to be very […] Read more
