Karen Morrison

Garlic can flavour a roast and ward off evil spirits, but it can also quell pesky insect problems. Warren Ham of Stratford, Ont., sells garlic juice to greenhouses and golf courses to control aphids and mites on bedding plants and mosquitoes in standing water. Horse stables spray the juice to control insects. Ham uses an […] Read more

Producers in dry areas should pay close attention to the greenfeed and silage offered to their cattle herds this winter. John McKinnon, beef chair with the University of Saskatchewan’s department of animal and poultry science, said a recent study has shown high potassium levels in feed can cause tetany and milk fever in animals at […] Read more

Imagine a farmer growing a crop specially selected, produced and milled for a bakery, with a price negotiated at the time the crop is planted. It happens on rare occassions now, but Al Mussell, a research associate with the think-tank George Morris Centre in Guelph, Ont., wants farmers to consider such innovative concepts more often […] Read more

School bus driver Kim Nuttall approaches the intersection north of Pense, Sask., cautiously these days after a collision there last year cost her two weeks of work. Nuttall said a car passed through a stop sign and collided with the school bus, injuring both drivers and the two teenaged passengers she had just picked up […] Read more

BRODERICK, Sask. – B.J. Boot traded his life at Fort Macleod, Alta., for the irrigated lands around Outlook, Sask., five years ago, seeing much potential for a young entrepreneur in Saskatchewan. “I see a country here that needs to just get going,” said the 32-year-old father of five. High land prices, lack of room to […] Read more

BRODERICK, Sask. – Saskatchewan could use its irrigation resources to make inroads into lucrative international export markets for timothy hay, says an irrigation agrologist. Korvin Olfert of Saskatchewan Agriculture said timothy acreage needs to double to keep two Outlook-area hay compression plants working at full capacity. “The sky’s the limit,” he said, citing strong returns […] Read more

Keith Downey’s career path came to a fork in the 1950s, with tines of either forage or rapeseed research stretching out in front of him. He chose rapeseed and went on to play a major role in the transformation of the crop and development of the canola industry in Canada. He took the plant beyond […] Read more

Retired plant breeder Al Slinkard is content to grow traditional garden crops in his city backyard and leave the chores of the family’s mixed farm outside Saskatoon to his son. The former plant breeder with the Crop Development Centre at the University of Saskatchewan is best known for helping change the landscape of farm fields […] Read more

Fifty-four fallow deer were removed from a game farm near Spiritwood, Sask., after an SPCA inspection found 116 others dead. Frances Wach, executive director of the Saskatchewan SPCA, said two white-tailed deer from the 170-head herd were killed on the farm Aug. 14. “They were in poor condition,” said Wach. The surviving animals are being […] Read more

Ray Prefontaine returned to the ranch where he grew up prepared to do things differently. After a stint in Ottawa as an economist, he came home to Lisieux, Sask., in 1981 and sought expert advice on how best to manage and sustain his cattle and his land. He quickly realized that cows selected and depleted […] Read more