Karen Briere

SUMY, Ukraine – Chickens scatter as the car comes around a curve and through a small Ukrainian village. Ducks, geese and turkeys also head for safer ground, while goats and cows, tethered at the roadside, raise their heads and continue chewing. Some villagers sit on benches outside their fenced yards, tending their animals or passing […] Read more

An operating deficit caused by escalating labour costs has forced Prairie Diagnostic Services Inc. to close its Regina lab. PDS chief executive officer Marilyn Jonas said the decision to close the lab March 6 and consolidate operations in Saskatoon will save nearly $500,000 a year. “We have been struggling with an operating deficit for some […] Read more

Thanks to the largest harvest since communist days, Ukraine grain and oilseed production this year is influencing world markets like never before. The breadbasket of the former Soviet Union, with rich soil and favourable climate, is slowly recovering from the economic collapse that followed the dissolution of the USSR. But The Western Producer’s Karen Briere […] Read more

SUMY, Ukraine – The Massey Ferguson combine churns down one side of a field of soybeans. A John Deere makes short work of the other side. Harvest has just about wound down here in late October. A few fields of soybeans and sunflowers remain while others are green with fall-seeded wheat and canola. It’s an […] Read more

DNIPROPETROVSK, Ukraine – Canadian farmers take for granted the ability to buy and sell land. Ukrainian farmers have been waiting a long time for that right. Under reforms that began with Ukraine’s independence in 1991 following the collapse of the Soviet Union, farmers now own their land but they can’t sell it or buy more. […] Read more

KIEV, Ukraine – George Gruschenko sees the business opportunities that exist between Canada and Ukraine more clearly than most. The trade commissioner at the Canadian embassy in Kiev has helped facilitate many of them, acting as a host in Ukraine and leading delegations to Canada. His face is familiar to those at two major Saskatchewan […] Read more

KIEV, Ukraine – The list of obstacles facing Ukrainian farmers might seem long and insurmountable. Incomplete land reform, out-of-date equipment, poor infrastructure and lack of cash flow all hinder their ability to make a living. The government is in a perpetual state of political infighting. The hryvnia, Ukraine’s currency, has performed poorly in the financial […] Read more

SUMY, Ukraine – Ukrainian sugar refineries are closing in anticipation of raw sugar imports beginning this year. Producers expected the closures after the country’s membership in the World Trade Organization was approved early last year. Under the agreement, Ukraine must open a tariff quota of 260,000 tonnes annually on raw cane sugar, which increases to […] Read more

SWIFT CURRENT, Sask. – Producers who want to use alfalfa in crop rotations should be sure to remove it after three production years, says a researcher from the Semiarid Prairie Agricultural Research Centre here. Otherwise, the soil moisture will be depleted and forage production will drop off. “Three years would be a good fit in […] Read more