Karen Morrison

REGINA – Driver Chubby McKerrel leans against a row of tires on a transport truck outside the head offices of Prudhomme Trucks Ltd. in Regina, drawing on a cigarette while lining up his next road trip. Richard Miller of driver services huddles against the wind this afternoon to discuss the load of freight needed in […] Read more

WALDECK, Sask. – Working with pigs’ natural tendencies produces a content animal and better tasting pork, say hog producers Bonita and Doug Sauder. They offer their large-scale family-operated finishing barn outside Waldeck as one alternative to the corporate intensive livestock operations that are becoming increasingly commonplace across the Prairies. Prairie Point Pork Producers’ eight barns […] Read more

Producers using straw-based pig production systems could one day find a niche export market for their animals, said John Maltman, regional swine specialist with Manitoba Agriculture. Manitoba Agriculture and Agriculture Canada have spent the last year developing protocols and synchronizing production systems. In addition to exploring U.S. markets, a private company is also involved in […] Read more

A link found between estrus-suppressing drugs and pneumonia in cattle could help feedlot operators cut losses in market-ready animals. In a three-year study, Tim McAllister of the Agriculture Canada Research Centre in Lethbridge found a link between heifer losses to atypical interstitial pneumonia, or AIP, and the commonly fed estrus-suppressing drug melengestrol acetate, or MGA. […] Read more

Governments are the number one enemy of Canadians opposed to big hog barns, Bill Weida of The Colorado College told a national conference on intensive livestock operations in Saskatoon. “When you look at the subsidy structure in Canada for hogs, you’re not fighting hog owners, you’re fighting the government because the government really owns the […] Read more

Canadians can learn much from North Carolina’s bad experience with large-scale hog operations, says Rick Dove of the Waterkeeper Alliance. “Use this example so you don’t repeat our mistakes,” he told a conference about intensive livestock farms held in Saskatoon Nov. 9. Dove spent eight years enforcing federal environmental laws along the state’s Neuse River […] Read more

Canada has its first case of chronic wasting disease, or CWD, in farmed deer following confirmation of the infection in a white-tailed deer north of Edmonton. George Luterbach of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said the animal was one of 290 on the game farm. “This animal was quite advanced in the disease and could […] Read more

Each kernel of grain had to be meticulously placed in a creation that took artist Bob Boyson several hundred hours to complete. Boyson, who died earlier this year, is perhaps best remembered for his oversized “grain paintings,” some three by four feet in size containing seeds several layers deep. Three creations he made with artist […] Read more

There haven’t been many new fruit growers in Saskatchewan lately, but those in the business have expanded their acreages, said Clarence Peters, provincial specialist in fruit crops with Saskatchewan Agriculture. Speaking at the Saskatchewan Fruit Growers conference in Saskatoon Nov. 2, Peters said that is not unusual for a maturing industry. There are 1,553 acres […] Read more

Fruit growers should focus on their markets when making planting decisions, said Bob Bors, assistant professor in plant sciences at the University of Saskatchewan. “You ought to think backwards,” he told a Saskatchewan Fruit Growers conference in Saskatoon Nov. 2. Growers should first determine if their market lies in U-pick, native varieties, organic or health […] Read more