Farmers frustrated with high priced fertilizer have bypassed their local dealers to buy shiploads of urea fertilizer direct from Russia at half the cost. Thirty-two farmers and 42 Hutterite colonies from Alberta and Saskatchewan have signed contracts for enough fertilizer to fill one ship with 25,000 tonnes of 46-0-0 granular fertilizer for $450 a tonne. […] Read more
Stories by Mary MacArthur
New BSE case confirmed in B.C. dairy cow
Canadian Food Inspection Agency officials confirmed Canada’s 15th case of BSE Nov. 17. BSE was discovered in a seven-year-old dairy cow from British Columbia through the national BSE surveillance program. The animal’s birth farm has been identified and the investigation is underway. No part of the animal’s carcass went into the food or feed system. […] Read more
Sequencing project targets 1,000 plants
A University of Alberta researcher will lead a team of experts to study the gene sequence of 1,000 plants. Gane Ka-Shu Wong said the ambitious $2 million plant project is possible only because the cost of DNA sequencing has dropped dramatically since the human DNA sequence was completed in 2000 at a cost of $300 […] Read more
Alberta to eliminate weed-and-feed products
Herbicide and pesticide combinations known as weed-and-feed will be banned in Alberta beginning Jan. 1, 2010. The ban is intended to help protect the quality of water downstream of urban areas. “We need to take steps wherever possible to protect and preserve the quality of Alberta’s rivers and lakes,” said Alberta environment minister Rob Renner. […] Read more
Pitfalls of packer ownership
EDMONTON – Ever since a case of BSE was discovered in Canada in 2003, producers, politicians and community leaders have been trying to inject life into the slumping beef industry. BSE drove prices down and kept Canada out of international beef and cattle markets. Many people in the industry looked to community owned packing plants […] Read more
Salers back in spotlight
EDMONTON – Rod Hannah tried several breeds of cattle, but after he discovered Salers in 1975, he stayed with them. “They’re the best,” said Hannah at the Salers national show at Farmfair International. “They’re good mothers, they cross really well and they want to calve. My cows calve on their own,” said Hannah of Didsbury, […] Read more
Producers ask minister to resign
WESTLOCK, Alta. – Alberta beef producers angry with the government’s livestock and meat strategy voted to ask for the resignation of the minister of agriculture. Delegates at an ABP meeting in Mayerthorpe also voted recently to ask for the minister’s resignation. “I think ABP in the past has had excellent rapport with the minister. I […] Read more
ABP fears for checkoff
WESTLOCK, Alta. – Alberta Beef Producers members are worried the province’s agriculture minister will order their organization to give up its mandatory checkoff and divide it among other beef cattle groups. Harvey Hagman, an ABP director, said other smaller cattle groups such as the Western Stock Growers Association and the Beef Initiative Group have lobbied […] Read more
Family’s Simmentals sweep show
EDMONTON – A pair of black Simmentals owned by Rancier Farms of Killam, Alta., made Farmfair history by winning supreme champion bull and female. It’s the first time since the Supreme Show of Champions began in 2002 that a Simmental has won both top bull and female at the event. It is also the first […] Read more
Quebec breeder brings winner to Farmfair
EDMONTON – A Quebec cattle breeder’s love affair with Farmfair has paid off. Tammi McGee came west with a bull calf last year and won reserve champion. This year, the same bull won grand champion at the breed’s national show and was high seller at the Salers’ Cream of the Crop show. “I came last […] Read more
