Karen Morrison

Cuts to Alberta Agriculture were made official last week with the closure of offices at Drayton Valley, Coronation, Morinville and Lac la Biche. The office closures were accompanied by the loss of 145 jobs and a shift to emphasize industry development. Eighteen hub offices in rural and urban Alberta will now provide staff in these […] Read more

Prairie residents are concerned about climate change, but are divided on who should be dealing with it. Those are the preliminary results of the Prairie Adaptation Research Collaborative Natural Resource policy survey conducted by the University of Alberta and the Canadian Forest Service. The web-based survey selected 1,000 prairie residents from the agriculture and forestry […] Read more

Doug Fee was to represent Canadian Aberdeen Angus breeders at the Queen Mother’s funeral in London, England, on April 9. The chief executive officer of the Canadian Aberdeen Angus Association received the invitation by telephone April 1. “I feel greatly honoured to be invited to represent the Angus breeders there,” said Fee from his office […] Read more

More trees and better roads are promised for Saskatchewan residents in 2002. Federal and provincial agriculture ministers Lyle Vanclief and Clay Serby jointly made announcements March 26 in Saskatoon to offer more shelterbelt trees to farmers and continue improving “grain-impacted” roads. Vanclief said the grain handling system has evolved into one with fewer, larger grain […] Read more

Cattle shelters using living trees and pastures that simultaneously produce wood and cattle are among opportunities for farmers in wooded areas. Parkland Agroforestry Inc. is a group of more than 30 farmers who are exploring silvopasturing. This means the intensive management of trees, forage and rotating cattle on the same tracts of land. Barry Ortman, […] Read more

REGINA BEACH, Sask. – Lincoln Dobson sees beauty and opportunity in the greying icons of the prairie grain trade. He breathes new life into the dented, nail-riddled timbers with his company, Last Mountain Timber Wrighting and Recycling of Regina Beach, Sask. “It’s not surprising, but it’s very satisfying,” said the 32 year old of his […] Read more

Larry Motz of Glidden, Sask., wants to make a good living off his egg production, but says he is held back by the number of birds he can raise without quota in Saskatchewan. Motz and Curtis Jensen of Milden recently took their concerns to the Saskatchewan Agri-Food Council. It oversees the six-member Saskatchewan Egg Producers […] Read more

Statistics Canada’s latest environmental management survey has left some farmers wondering how the results will be used. Gordon McPhee, a director with the Keystone Agricultural Producers at Dauphin, Man., said farmers are uncomfortable answering questions with poor wording, limited choices of answers and unfamiliar program names. The Best or Beneficial Management Practices, or BMP, is […] Read more

Laverne Minisofer sells everything from orange-checked sofas to chipped china, but the auction business was not her first career choice. She took over Grasswood Auction after the death of her husband Al. “It was not my cup of tea, but he just loved it,” she said. Al had trained as an auctioneer in Iowa and […] Read more

More than 300 Saskatchewan elk exposed to chronic wasting disease will be destroyed within weeks, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency confirmed March 11. Ken Stepushyn, the agency’s acting chief veterinarian, said the animals have been under quarantine on a farm near Prince Albert since one elk in the herd tested positive under Saskatchewan’s CWD surveillance […] Read more