Many community pastures are in critical condition this spring, with some unable to take cattle, says Hugh Cook of the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration’s pasture planning and allocations division. He said PFRA has told its clients it will be a short grazing season. “If we damage that grass in these few years of drought, then […] Read more
Stories by Karen Morrison
The kindness of farmers – Editorial Notebook
Travelling around southern Manitoba in mid-May in white-out conditions was a lesson in prairie preparedness. I failed. I left the Sorrels at home and an umbrella would have become a windsock within seconds in the gusting winds and wet heavy snow. The rental car had no scraper and its block heater cord was safely tucked […] Read more
Death not a good exit strategy
WINNIPEG – Seriously ill in a hospital bed, surrounded by family and clergy and slipping in and out of consciousness, Henry Hays remained lucid long enough to tell his family to continue with the farm succession plan. Hays recovered from that health scare in 2000 and has continued to move toward retirement and the eventual […] Read more
Handing over the keys
WINNIPEG – Small margins, global subsidies and the large amount of capital invested in the modern farm underline the need for an effective transfer of management skills from one generation to the next. Speaking at a conference on family farm succession in Winnipeg, Wilson Loree, director of Alberta Agriculture’s agriculture management service, said transfers will […] Read more
Off-farm jobs help develop skills
WINNIPEG – Farmers of the future increasingly could choose farming as a second career, returning with equity and management experience after working in other sectors first. Larry Martin of the George Morris Centre, who spoke at a conference on farm succession in Winnipeg earlier this month, said many over age 35 are coming back to […] Read more
Couple lives off the land
KOMARNO, Man. – Betty Kehler is down on her knees, nose to beak with a dozen yellow goslings, imprinting herself as their leader. They will form an important part of her labour force weeding the rows of strawberries at the Plum Ridge Farm in Manitoba’s Interlake district near Komarno. Kehler and Bob Pizey grow everything […] Read more
Farm succession institute urged
WINNIPEG – Increased awareness of the impending need for farm succession planning will hit a dead end without a national institute in place to centre, support and co-ordinate the journey, participants heard at a national family farm succession conference held here May 9-11. “There’s no use raising awareness and highlighting the issue if we can’t […] Read more
Young farmers put college degrees to practical use
HERSCHEL, Sask. – Baby Shayna plays with a visitor’s dusty shoe on the wood laminate floor of a refurbished school house as her parents talk about the life they are building here. Shayna’s 24-year-old parents Jon and Jen Fehr explain how their education has laid the foundation for a career in farming near Herschel, Sask. […] Read more
Vet helps launch beef food safety program
SWIFT CURRENT, Sask. – Ted Dupmeier saw the devastation from foot-and-mouth disease first-hand while working as a veterinarian in the British countryside last summer. This April, he joined Saskatchewan’s Quality Starts Here, or OSH, team seeking to assure consumers around the world that Canadian beef is safe from the field to the dinner plate. In […] Read more
Protein research studies stress-resistance plants
Michle Loewen knows little about plants, but lots about proteins. “I have a very brown thumb,” she said of her gardening skills. The specialist in biochemistry and crystallography has recently moved from studying anti-freeze proteins in fish to identifying stress-resistant proteins in crops. Loewen hopes to discover what proteins can be used to create better […] Read more
