Karen Morrison

Saskatchewan and Alberta elk farmers have joined a class-action lawsuit claiming Agriculture Canada negligently allowed diseased animals into the country. Blane and Glen Heitt of Unity, Sask., and Rick Alsager of Maidstone, Sask., filed the suit in Regina on Nov. 28. They say Agriculture Canada allowed farmers to import elk and deer even though adequate […] Read more

The Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities got what it wished for last week, a cap on the amount rural local governments will pay the province to fight forest fires. Speaking to the 98th annual SARM conference in Saskatoon last week, president Neal Hardy expressed concern over the millions of dollars in costs incurred by RMs […] Read more

Farmers should be given credit for their ongoing reductions of greenhouse gases, says federal agriculture minister Lyle Vanclief. With many farmers having already switched to management techniques like zero tillage, delegates to the convention of Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities were concerned they might not get credit for environmental stewardship practices called for in the […] Read more

BIRCH HILLS, Sask. – Born in Switzerland, raised in Quebec and married in Saskatchewan, Florian Hagmann is used to change. “I always had the dream to go out West,” said Florian, a 30-year-old farmer who established a purebred Holstein dairy herd at Birch Hills, Sask., after marrying his wife Sharon in 1999. Now three years […] Read more

A mule deer buck shot near Stewart Valley, Sask., has tested positive for chronic wasting disease. Art Jones of Saskatchewan Environment said that makes four positive cases in wild mule deer, including three bucks and one doe taken near Saskatchewan Landing. There have been eight positive cases in wild deer since the late 1990s. The […] Read more

ELSTOW, Sask. – Take a shower without getting wet, make phosphorescent powder footprints in a black light room or watch piglets sparring in play at the new Prairie Swine Interpretive Centre at Elstow, Sask. The centre, set to open March 26, will literally offer a window on the world of modern large-scale pig production. A […] Read more

Councillors in the Saskatchewan rural municipality of Foam Lake voted March 5 against plans to build large pig barns. The council had formed a hog development board last year to explore bringing Big Sky Farms to six sites in the community. Opposition mounted against the development, resulting in petitions with 600 signatures presented to council […] Read more

OUTLOOK, Sask. – In a two year fertilizer management trials, Norland and Russet Norkotah potato fields fared better with ammonium sulfate applications than with urea. Vegetable researcher Greg Larson of the Canada-Saskatchewan Irrigation Diversification Centre told the Saskatchewan Vegetable Growers Association conference Feb. 28 that this is likely due to soil temperature and uptake by […] Read more

Roxanna Kaminski hopes her research will improve the quality of life for families of farmers injured on the job. Kaminski, who teaches nursing at the Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Science and Technology and works as an operating room nurse in Saskatoon, is interviewing spouses affected by accidents on the farm for her university masters thesis. […] Read more

Charlene Gray wants to turn around the fortunes of Bankend, Sask., one person at a time. “In all rural communities, everybody’s come to the point where they feel, ‘is there anything left in rural Saskatchewan worth fighting for?’ ” she said. Gray wants to channel discouragement, anger and aggression into something productive and get more […] Read more