Karen Briere

Share prices for two prairie grain handlers rose last week after a hostile takeover bid on Agricore United by Saskatchewan Wheat Pool. Analysts say that’s because investors expect more activity, including the possibility of another company entering the fray. Agricore United’s price shot up 25 percent the day after the pool announced an unsolicited bid. […] Read more

When Canadian Western Agribition opens its doors to the world Nov. 20, American beef cattle will cross the threshold for the first time since 2003. Purebred beef entries from Kansas and North Dakota mark the return of American cattle after the discovery of BSE restricted livestock movement across the border. Show general manager Leon Brin […] Read more

Saskatchewan and Manitoba will go ahead with a producer plebiscite on the Canadian Wheat Board’s export monopoly if Ottawa doesn’t hold a vote as soon as possible, say the premiers of both provinces. At a Saskatoon news conference Nov. 10, NDP premiers Lorne Calvert and Gary Doer said they would prefer if the federal government […] Read more

Saskatchewan municipalities that withhold taxes they collect on behalf of school boards won’t receive grants they are due from the provincial government under legislative amendments introduced last week. Government relations minister Harry Van Mulligen said the law requiring one level of government to collect taxes for another was introduced decades ago and had to be […] Read more

In a bid to avoid the water quality and quantity problems seen in other jurisdictions, the Saskatchewan government has introduced a water conservation plan. As a large water user, agriculture plays a key role in that plan, said environment minister John Nilson. Saskatchewan has seven percent of the fresh water in Canada and about 1.5 […] Read more

Bad weather, low prices and high costs have pushed 14,700 Saskatchewan farmers off the land in the last five years. Nola Joorisity, chief executive officer of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Saskatchewan, said fewer people will be employed in primary agriculture as farmers get older and a new generation doesn’t replace them. “They don’t […] Read more

Analysts say Saskatchewan Wheat Pool undervalued its competitor Agricore United in its hostile bid to take over the company, and that makes the offer unattractive to shareholders. “At this price I’m definitely not a seller,” said Robert Beauregard, a portfolio manager at Natcan Investment Management in Montreal. The company owns more than 3.6 million AU […] Read more

Farmers in southwestern Saskatchewan coping with unusually high gopher populations have had a helping hand from a natural predator. But now badgers are becoming problems, too. They make huge messes in fields as they dig holes to capture their prey. The gophers, formally known as Richardson’s ground squirrels, had already left many fields looking like […] Read more

Saskatchewan’s alternative land-use pilot project will go ahead next spring in the Rural Municipality of Lakeside. The ALUS task force chose the central Saskatchewan site from among 21 applications. The RM surrounds the communities of Watson and Quill Lake and includes a portion of the Quill Lakes. Task force chair Glenn Blakley said the area […] Read more

A multi-year, multimillion-dollar strategy designed to make Saskatchewan’s transportation system more effective will soon be unveiled by the provincial government. Highways and transportation minister Eldon Lautermilch said the strategy will be announced “in the next short while.” The government announced its intention during the Oct. 26 throne speech that opened the fall sitting of the […] Read more