Selling by the numbers | Dairy producers say gene-linked traits are the biggest industry advancement since freezing semen
PONOKA, Alta. — It was an eight-month old Holstein heifer that didn’t even attend the Morsan Farms sale that brought top dollar. Sully Man-O-Shan Martha sold for $140,000 at the farm’s Morsan300 sale Sept. 18-19. It was the heifer’s numbers rather than its looks that brought the high prices, said Greg Thalen of Morsan Farms. […] Read moreStories by Mary MacArthur
Stampede says drug testing protocols were valid
The Calgary Stampede’s appeal committee has upheld the decision to disqualify the winning steer in its Steer Classic competition after it tested positive for drug use. In a news release, the Calgary Stampede said the appeal panel agreed the competition’s rules were “explicit and clear” and the drug testing protocols were valid. The grand champion […] Read more
Stampede’s drug testing a fiasco: vet
CALGARY — The Calgary Stampede may know how to organize a rodeo, but it botched its drug testing program at this year’s steer show, says one of Canada’s leading experts on drug testing. Blood samples from the disqualified steer rather than meat residues were used for the tests, and the blood was sent to a […] Read more
Cycling event impresses the pros
It’s not as well known as the Tour de France, but the Tour of Alberta has caught the attention of cycling fans and hopefully the dollars of future tourists. It’s estimated 168 million viewers in 162 countries may have watched elite cyclists race down rural roads and through small towns and cities in Alberta, and […] Read more
Ducks Unlimited makes big purchase
Ducks Unlimited Canada has celebrated its 75th anniversary by buying a 6,000 acre parcel of prairie wetlands in the middle of southern Alberta’s farming country. “It’s an island of grass surrounded by a sea of cultivation,” said Barry Bishop, head of conservation programs with Ducks Unlimited Canada. The 6,000 acre block, about an hour south […] Read more
Energy company activities infuriate Alberta residents
PEACE RIVER, Alta. — Richard and Audrey Langer gave up their fight with nearby energy companies this spring and moved off the farm. After years of complaining about the odours from nearby oil operations, the couple moved 75 kilo-metres west where they said the air didn’t smell so foul. Langer’s father homesteaded the farm in […] Read more
Alberta appoints new deputy ag minister
Jason Krips will replace John Knapp as deputy minister of agriculture, effective Sept. 30. Krips is not an unfamiliar face to agriculture in Alberta. He was executive assistant to then agriculture minister Doug Horner from 2004-06 and was Horner’s executive assistant in the advanced education and technology ministry from 2006-08. Krips, a lawyer, worked with […] Read more
Taste tests provide consumer feedback
Market testing | Program uses consumer testers to collect information on new products
EDMONTON — The hard work of developing a new food product may be for naught if it tastes lousy. Having the products taste tested by consumer testers is one more step to helping products become successful, said Nicole Gaudette, a senior sensory scientist with Alberta Agriculture. The department uses more than 2,000 consumer testers in […] Read more
Alberta mom heads campaign to educate public on AEDs
FAIRVIEW, Alta. — Kim Ruether doesn’t know if her son would have lived if she had been with him when he collapsed from cardiac arrest in the high school gymnasium, a defibrillation machine at his side. What she does want people to know is that they shouldn’t be scared to use the automatic external defibrillator […] Read more
Disqualified steer wins at B.C. show
Three weeks after being stripped of its first place ribbon from the Calgary Stampede steer show, a disqualified steer has won first place at the Interior Provincial Exhibition. Riley Chalack of Carstairs, Alta., won first and second place at the Jackpot Steer Show in Armstrong, B.C., with two steers. The steer that placed first in […] Read more
