Karen Morrison

OSLER, Sask. — A couple in Osler, Sask., is keeping their chickens in one barn but their eggs in different baskets. Melanie and Kevin Boldt raise 150 Holstein heifers and farm 2,000 acres with Kevin’s parents, Dennis and Margaret Boldt. At Pine View Farm, they also operate a provincially inspected slaughter and processing plant for […] Read more

A great grey owl is not what usually gets weighed on the nail scale at the Northside, Sask., lumber store. Two local farmers brought their road kill into the shop last week, curious to learn of its 2.7 pound size before handing it over to conservation officers. A shortage of mice in the boreal forest […] Read more

A trip to a family wedding in Holland has led to an extended vacation in downtown Vancouver for feedlot operators Cor and Christine Van Raay. The Picture Butte, Alta., couple have quarantined themselves in a downtown hotel room since returning from Holland last week. They were visiting family overseas when the first outbreak of foot-and-mouth […] Read more

SARM went home with a bad taste in its mouth over how the federal government treats Western Canada, says the group’s president Sinclair Harrison. “This feeling of alienation from Ottawa is not a rural issue, but a Western Canadian issue,” said Harrison, who was re-elected president at the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities 96th annual […] Read more

The same marine bacteria that creates a shimmering glow will be used to shed light on potato diseases at the research centre in Lethbridge, Alta. Light-emitting genes, originally from marine organisms, will allow scientists to trace a bacteria’s journey into potatoes. “If we can be aware of where bacteria enters, we can breed resistance into […] Read more

CHICAGO, Ill. (Reuters) — American livestock and meat market traders are expecting at least a month of volatile trading while Europe learns if it has succeeded in containing foot-and-mouth disease. “We are looking toward the beginning of April to say, ‘We now think the outbreak is over,’ “said Richard Ali, the United States Meat Export […] Read more

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Reuters) — The United States Congress needs a clear-eyed picture of who feeds America before it writes the new farm law due by the end of 2002, says the chair of the U.S. Senate’s agriculture committee. Richard Lugar, a Republican from Indiana, said he wants to start a debate on the structure of […] Read more

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (Reuters) — Fears of a fresh outbreak of the deadly Nipah virus have died down in Malaysia following reports that recent tests on cattle in the country’s former hog centre were negative. The number of pig farms in the southern state of Negeri Sembilan dropped from 800 to one after an outbreak […] Read more

Unseasonably warm weather that allows sunbathing in March and makes skiers dodge rocks cannot all be blamed on global warming, says one meteorologist. Madhav Khandekar, former research scientist with Environment Canada, said reviews of recent studies do not conclusively link greenhouse gases, global warming and climate change. “It’s an uncertain science at best,” he said, […] Read more

KELVINGTON, Sask. — Eyes wide and mouths silent, schoolchildren listen intently to Larry Warwaruk’s tales of mounted Cossack horsemen brandishing swords, and young Ukrainian men embarking on a new life in a young Canada. Warwaruk shares a Ukrainian heritage with many of the students he sees daily as writer-in-residence in Saskatchewan’s Quill Plains region. With […] Read more