Mary MacArthur

EDMONTON – The new president of Alberta’s rural municipalities association moved from Calgary back to the family farm in southern Alberta because of his love of rural Alberta. “I’m passionate about rural Alberta,” said Don Johnson, who moved back to the farm in 1990. He said his family had an “itch” to return home to […] Read more

EDMONTON – The new president of Alberta’s rural municipalities association moved from Calgary back to the family farm in southern Alberta because of his love of rural Alberta. “I’m passionate about rural Alberta,” said Don Johnson, who moved back to the farm in 1990. He said his family had an “itch” to return home to […] Read more

Don Boles, a farmer from Three Hills, Alta., usually runs an informal election poll to predict which party will win the Alberta election. Each person throws in a couple of bucks and they predict how many seats each party is going to take. Whoever is closest takes the pot. This year he didn’t bother because […] Read more

EDMONTON – Organizers of one of the largest cattle shows in Alberta have shifted focus from live animals to embryos and semen. “In the next few years embryo and semen are the only way people can move genetics from Canada,” said Colin Campbell, an Agriculture Canada marketing officer and an organizer of the Farmfair show […] Read more

Alberta has eliminated its provincial debt, but it built up a substantial debt in municipal infrastructure in the meantime, says a right wing think-tank. In the report, Foundations for Prosperity, the Canada West Foundation said the lack of money spent on infrastructure is starting to hurt the provincial economy. “The conclusion is inescapable: Alberta’s municipal […] Read more

An Alberta farmer has won his case after a recent court decision ruled that the chemical Pursuit lacked adequate warnings on its label about possible harm to crops the year after the chemical’s use. A Calgary Court of Queen’s Bench justice said Cyanamid Crop Protection, a division of Wyeth-Ayerst Canada, did not adequately warn farmers […] Read more

Rural Albertans can be forgiven if they don’t pay much attention to the provincial election. The leaders of the three main parties, the governing Progressive Conservatives and the opposition Liberals and New Democrats, haven’t ventured far from the urban centres of Calgary and Edmonton either in person or policy, said Rod Scarlett, executive director of […] Read more

As the rules and regulations around antibiotic use in farm animals grow each year, so does the interest in probiotics, which add beneficial microorganisms rather than killing bad ones. “I want to be ahead of regulations that are coming into place,” said Simon Goodwin, a pork producer from Calmar, Alta., who attended an information meeting […] Read more

Organizers of some of the packing plants proposed for the Prairies have been forced to change their share structure to accept partial payment of shares in cows. Dennis Duncan of the Canada Farm Direct packing initiative said few farmers have been able to come up with cash to pay for the shares in the producer-owned […] Read more

Only hours after calling an election, Alberta premier Ralph Klein flew to Ottawa for a meeting on equalization payments, vowing to protect Alberta’s interests. “We think equalization is a bad deal for Alberta,” said Klein when he announced the Nov. 22 election. The next day Klein returned to Alberta saying he was happy with the […] Read more