Listening to customers and giving them what they want are recipes for success at Carmen Creek Gourmet Meats. “Provide what they want, not what you want to produce,” said Dean Andres, who manages about 1,500 head of bison on his land and in a feedlot at Windthorst, Sask. He is Carmen Creek’s director of sales […] Read more
Stories by Karen Morrison
Old Sask. dam study may get dusted off
NORTH BATTLEFORD, Sask. – Don Young knows the value of water in his Saskatchewan rural municipality. The councillor for the rural municipality of Eldon said livestock producers, irrigated farms and 3,000 oil wells all use water in their operations. He is a member of a committee examining the High Gate dam near North Battleford, Sask., […] Read more
Prairie water board urged to promote development
NORTH BATTLEFORD, Sask. – A prairie-wide water board could help strengthen water management, development and conservation and protect watersheds for human health. A host of speakers floated the idea at a conference here Nov. 4. Graham Parsons, vice-president of Clifton Associates Ltd., said the proposed federal council would address the big gaps in water management […] Read more
Late harvesters fighting mud
LAKE LENORE, Sask. – Bouncing over the field’s frozen ruts in a pickup truck on a cold fall morning, it’s hard to imagine a combine hung up on its belly in soupy gumbo. Good moisture in 2004, combined with steady rains this August and September, have produced muddy conditions and both complicated and delayed harvest […] Read more
Snow trapping snares water
Farmers cannot change the weather but they can make better use of what naturally comes their way. Capturing snow can increase surface moisture or help avoid excess runoff for the often dry Prairies, without a need for more dams and irrigation, said John Pomeroy of the University of Saskatchewan. The book Snow Cover, co-written by […] Read more
Rain slows corn silage
Southern Alberta corn growers are struggling to get this year’s corn out of wet fields and into the silage pits for the winter. More than 120 millimetres of rain received in mid-September soaked fields and delayed harvesting. Rick Paskal, who was harvesting corn for silage Oct. 3 near his feedlot at Iron Springs, Alta., said […] Read more
Uniting the southwest
GULL LAKE, Sask. – The meeting fills half the restaurant in this small Trans-Canada Highway town in southwestern Saskatchewan. Talk moves from attracting European tourists to building a commercially viable regional airport to dealing with skilled labour shortages. More than 20 representatives from local and provincial government, agriculture and business have gathered as part of […] Read more
Sask. seeking soybeans
WYNYARD, Sask. – The green roof of a soybean processing plant in this east-central Saskatchewan community is clearly visible from Bob Webb’s farm. Webb decided to plant 40 acres of soybeans this cool spring to capitalize on the opportunity to grow and supply a crop to the new A1 Soybean Enterprises plant in Wynyard. He […] Read more
Rain dampens harvest optimism
Electrical power returned to parts of southwestern Alberta this week while a damaged bridge remained closed near Porcupine Plain, Sask., after heavy rainfall halted harvest and forced several districts to declare themselves disaster areas. Neal Hardy, president of the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities, expects as many as 100 RMs to apply for provincial disaster […] Read more
Prairie drought: the real concern – Special Report (story 3)
While the future of glaciers and their effect on prairie water supply is uncertain, the effect of prairie droughts is clear. John Pomeroy, director of the Centre for Hydrology and Canada research chair in water resources and climate change at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, said western Canadian droughts vary. Sometimes the mountains receive […] Read more
