Producers ‘almost doing cartwheels’ | American calf crop shrinks to the smallest in 60 years
Records are being broken across the Prairies as feeder cattle sell for prices that are up 75 percent from a year earlier. A combination of the lower Canadian dollar, lower feed prices and lower overall cattle numbers has sent calf prices skyward. “It seems like everything has gone right for the cattle industry this year,” […] Read moreStories by Mary MacArthur
Alta. couple takes an unexpected journey with goats
Goat dairy | Former ranchers take on a growing goat herd and organic milk processing
PONOKA, Alta. — When Patrick Bos graduated from college, the last thing he expected to do in the future was own a goat dairy. He would have been even more shocked to see a goat and cow milk processing plant in his future. “I would have said they were crazy,” he said. Today, Patrick and […] Read moreEx-Cargill worker fined for tampering
A provincial court judge has fined a former Cargill employee $7,500 for tampering with three waste-water samples in 2012 from the High River meat slaughter plant. An agreed statement of facts said Pushp Pal Singh tampered with three treated waste-water samples containing phosphorus by adding a substance to the samples that reduced the amount of […] Read more
University celebrates soil
Ag at the University of Alberta | School opened in 1915 with 16 students
EDMONTON — It was billed as a 100th anniversary celebration for the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Agriculture, Life and Environmental Sciences but turned into a love-in about soil and water. What connected the panelists was a love and respect for soil. Former Alberta premier and agriculture minister Ed Stelmach said he is still disturbed […] Read moreAlberta farm to star in Rick Mercer Report
ROUND HILL, Alta. — Everything Rick Mercer knows about farming, he learned from the Banack family. Canadian television comedy host Rick Mercer recently spent the day in Round Hill with Humphrey and Terri Banack and their family, learning about farming and driving expensive combines for a show scheduled for tomorrow. “I’m always amazed the equipment […] Read more
Sheep-cattle bond creates united front
Predator losses reduced | Researchers examine how to bond cattle and sheep into flerds to keep coyotes at bay
THORSBY, Alta. — Sheep losses from coyotes were eliminated on research station rangeland when cattle and sheep were bonded together into a flerd, says an American researcher. Just like in an old western movie where the settlers circled the wagons and the young and vulnerable huddled in the middle for protection, the cows created a […] Read more
Hog facility uses undercover video as training tool
An undercover video capturing poor treatment of pigs at a Red Deer assembly yard will be used as an employee training tool, says the chair of Western Hog Exchange. Brent Moen said staff and employees would go through the video frame by frame to help learn how to better handle hogs at the assembly yard. […] Read more
P.E.I. business puts honey in unexpected places
Island Abbey Foods | Dehydrated honey maker produces sugar cubes, lozenges and chewable candy
CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — A Prince Edward Island honey business keeps gets sweeter with time. Island Abbey Foods, which invented a way to dehydrate honey, recently added a pure honey lozenge to its list of honey products. As well, it will soon add a honey gummy, which is a way to sneak vitamins into a chewable […] Read moreVolunteers help harvest despite conditions
Canadian Foodgrains Bank | Among poor performing crops, lentils stand out
The crops in this year’s Canadian Foodgrains Bank growing projects are a mixed bag of good and bad yields and quality. In Saskatchewan, yields from the 32 projects are variable. For example, Hard Red Spring wheat ranges from feed to No. 1 and high protein and yields of 30 to 70 bushels per acre, said […] Read morePeace River dam clears environmental hurdle
$7.9 billion project It now goes to B.C. government with 80 conditions, including compensation for farmland
B.C. Hydro’s proposed hydroelectric dam on the Peace River cleared a major environmental hurdle Oct. 14, but the Site C project is not a done deal. Federal and provincial governments granted the $7.9 billion project environmental certificates along with a list of 80 conditions that must be met before the project can go ahead. It’s […] Read more
