First 21 days optimal | Front-loading breeding season yields heavier cows, healthier calves
SWIFT CURRENT, Sask. — Front-loading the breeding season should result in heavier calves and healthier cows, says Dr. John Campbell of the Western College of Veterinary Medicine. He told producers at the recent Foraging into the Future conference that they should target a 95 percent overall pregnancy rate with 65 percent of the females bred […] Read more
Karen Briere
Stories by Karen Briere
Revealing the link between man and nature
Joe Fafard grew up feeding chickens, slopping pigs and milking cows. In return, the animals fed the family of 12 children. That relationship figures large in Fafard’s career as one of Canada’s finest sculptors. His lifelike bronze sculptures of animals are admired and desired by many. He says he doesn’t know exactly why they are […] Read more
The world according to Lorne Scott
Lorne Scott opens his home office window and pours a few walnuts into a narrow feeder attached to the ledge. He has barely cranked the window closed when a chickadee alights, snatches a treat and flits away. A nuthatch visits another feeder in the farmyard, and a wood squirrel nibbles at something on the ground. […] Read more
‘Experience was a great teacher’
He became the face on the TV screen, the voice on the radio, the name in the newspaper in the post-BSE world. It happened sort of by accident, but Brad Wildeman emerged as a leader in the Canadian beef industry after the fateful announcement on May 20, 2003, that BSE had been found in Canada. […] Read more
Weather writes off irrigated crop trials
MOOSE JAW, Sask. — Irrigation crop trials, like so many others in 2012, suffered from too much rain, wind and hail, causing less than desirable results and in some cases no results at all. Garry Hnatowich, project lead for variety trials at the Canada-Sask-atchewan Irrigation Diversification Centre in Outlook, said abnormal weather throughout the growing […] Read more
Sask. irrigation moves under ag ministry arm
ICDC joins Agri-ARM | The designation will enable it to receive funding to conduct programs and expand irrigated acres
MOOSE JAW, Sask. — Saskatchewan’s Irrigation Crop Diversification Corp. gained more independence this year even as it became part of a provincial network. ICDC became a provincial Agri-ARM (applied research management) site last spring, joining seven other producer-led organizations in Redvers, Canora, Melfort, Prince Albert, Indian Head, Scott and Swift Current. The producer groups set […] Read moreViterra workers expected to approve new contract
Viterra country and head office employees are expected to vote in January on tentative collective agreements reached with the grain company in mid-December. The Grain and General Services Union Local 1 and 2 committees and Viterra management agreed to settlements just days before Glencore’s takeover of Viterra was completed Dec. 17. A report to GSU […] Read more
Thin ice warning issued in Sask.
Saskatchewan’s Water Security Agency is warning people to beware of thin ice and unsafe crossing conditions, even though the temperatures are low. The agency began releasing water from the Qu’Appelle Dam and Rafferty and Alameda reservoirs in November and will continue to do so throughout the winter. Winter stream flows create serious thin ice hazards, […] Read more
Ag recycling program expanded in Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan will expand a pilot project to develop an industry-led agricultural plastics recycling program. Environment minister Ken Cheveldayoff said today that $75,000 would go to CleanFarms Inc. to develop the program for plastic grain bags, plastic twine, silage bags and bale wrap. In 2012, CleanFarms conducted stakeholder meetings and submitted a draft program to the […] Read more
Competition Bureau won’t oppose hog company deals
Canada’s Competition Bureau will not oppose the purchases of two prairie-based hog companies. In a statement issued today, the bureau said Maple Leaf Foods’ offer for Puratone and Olymel’s offer for Big Sky Farms were not likely to lead to less competition. It didn’t issue action letters to the companies after separate investigations of the […] Read more
