Karen Morrison

Long, cold Canadian winters are credited with producing award winning cashmere goats in the Cariboo-Chilcotin region of British Columbia. Goat producer Diane Thompson said success also comes from meticulous attention to details like breeding programs and maintaining animals that produce excellent fleece yet grow to a good size for the meat market. This year, Thompson […] Read more

Lucky Lake has seen its share of bad luck in recent years. This south-central Saskatchewan village has ridden a rollercoaster over the last decade, first enjoying prosperity linked to rising potato and hog production, then crashing as these businesses foundered and charges of government mismanagement in potatoes arose. But the community believes its fortunes are […] Read more

Kelvin Bagshaw scaled back the potato acres on his farm near Birsay, Sask., to 70 from 300 in 2003, but still looks forward to a bright future in the crop in the irrigated lands around Lake Diefenbaker. “There’s no reason it can’t be a Taber or Lethbridge of this province,” he said, likening his district’s […] Read more

The Rafferty and Alameda dams could support 12,000 irrigated acres of farmland, but no one has yet asked to use the water. Wayne Dybvig, vice-president of operations with the Saskatchewan Watershed Authority, said that’s likely a symptom of general agricultural woes of low crop prices, high input costs and poor returns across the Prairies. “It’s […] Read more

A former health-care administrator will attempt to resuscitate water projects in western Saskatchewan this year. Doug Ball, chair of the steering committee for the Westside Irrigation Project, said the project has received tentative approval for funding from the Canada-Saskatchewan Water Supply Expansion Program. The money will be used to hire a consultant to explore development […] Read more

WADENA, Sask. – It’s open season for white-tailed deer so conservation officer Dale Achtymichuk is scouring country roads in search of hunters. Outfitted in orange, most of the hunters are easy to spot walking through stubble fields or driving in their vehicles. With lights flashing in his otherwise unmarked truck, Achtymichuk pulls over as many […] Read more

SWIFT CURRENT, Sask. – Saskatchewan irrigators presented Clay Serby with an incomplete water sprinkler to symbolize the work that remains to be done in irrigation development in the province. Roger Pederson, chair of the Saskatchewan Irrigation Projects Association, gave the deputy premier the gift and the message during SIPA’s annual two-day conference here last week. […] Read more

SWIFT CURRENT, Sask. – Two years out of every decade, Pat Hays doesn’t have water to irrigate his hay land at Eastend, Sask. He is concerned the International Joint Commission that is now considering a reopening of the 1921 apportionment agreements on the St. Mary’s and Milk rivers in Montana and Alberta could affect water […] Read more

ASQUITH, Sask. – The tap to TransGas’s underground storage caverns has been turned off, but Grandora, Sask., residents will keep close tabs on local water over the next three months. Marj Stevens and Eric Shearer, members of the Grandora and area water committee, each have acreages in the area. Shearer’s well water is unfit for […] Read more

The benefits of antibiotic use in chicken production outweigh the potential risks to humans, say researchers at the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine. They developed a mathematical model to compare risks associated with increased levels of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in meat with the potential benefits from a reduced level of food-borne illness in humans. […] Read more