LACOMBE, Alta. – Japanese breweries have dusted off an old recipe for shochu beer made from distilled barley and they want to make it from Alberta crop. Alberta producers are hoping to sell 80,000 to 100,000 tonnes of Metcalfe malting barley to Japan this year for the special drink that tastes more like scotch than […] Read more
Stories by Mary MacArthur
Foreign students learn about prairie farms
KINGMAN, Alta. – It was a meeting of the new and the experienced. Students from the University of Alberta’s Rural Economy Graduate Student Association recently joined farmers from the Kingman Marketing Group for their annual farm tour. The two groups didn’t have much in common except their interest in agriculture. For many students, it was […] Read more
Slow seeding helps canola make debut
LACOMBE, Alta. – Speed doesn’t just kill drivers; it also kills canola seed. Canola seeded fast and deep had 40 to 45 percent reduction in emergence than canola seeded shallow and slow in test plots near Lacombe. “It’s pretty dramatic,” said Neil Harker, a research scientist with Agriculture Canada’s Lacombe Research Centre. A trial comparing […] Read more
Alta. producers have deep roots
BRETON, Alta. – Duane and Christie Movald think everyone should go through the selection process required for Canada’s Outstanding Young Farmers’ program. It wasn’t easy to answer the extensive questions during the busy calving season, but the process forced the young couple to look back to where they started and recognize what they’d accomplished. “It […] Read more
Potato payout planned
Alberta potato producers who were forced to destroy their crops after the discovery of potato cyst nematode in two Edmonton area fields last October will receive compensation within two months. Dozens of Alberta potato farmers were forced to destroy their crops when the American and Mexican borders shut down after the pinhead-sized pest was discovered. […] Read more
Chuck wagon legend dies
Legendary chuck wagon driver Herman Flad died Aug. 5 after his semi truck and an oncoming pick-up truck collided near Rycroft, Alta. Flad, 68, was driving from a race in Strathmore, Alta., to Dawson Creek, B.C., for the next leg of the World Professional Chuckwagon Association tour. Sixteen of his 17 horses in the semi […] Read more
Gnat gathering an odd sight
Stella Atkinson sees plenty of sights on her early morning walks, but she wasn’t prepared for a moving mass of worms crossing the gravel road near her farm in central Alberta. Atkinson thought the mass was an old snakeskin lying on the road. Instead she saw thousands of one-millimetre-long worms shaped into a snake crawling […] Read more
Hungry beetle takes on canola crop pest
LACOMBE, Alta. – It is estimated root maggot in canola costs farmers $100 million in crop losses each year, but researchers are hoping a tiny pest with a voracious appetite can help reduce the damage. Lloyd Dosdall, entomologist with the University of Alberta, said he’s hoping Aleochara, a beetle that can eat up to 23 […] Read more
High hopes for sheep tagging
WETASKIWIN, Alta. – With the swipe of an ear tag, Martin Kaiser can tell the age of a ewe, how many lambs it has raised, if any died, the last time it received antibiotics or if it has mastitis. It wasn’t easy plugging in data on every one of his 1,500 ewes or learning how […] Read more
Guiding victims through system
ST. PAUL, Alta. – The shock of dealing with suicide, rape, domestic abuse or a home invasion is hard enough. Trying to navigate the maze of government bureaucracy to get help is almost impossible for some. As a part-time co-ordinator and volunteer advocate for the Victim Services unit in St. Paul, Francis Harder helps victims […] Read more
