Mary MacArthur

EDMONTON – If the planets align and gas prices stay high, Alberta is set to be debt free in 2005, just in time for Alberta’s 100th birthday and the next provincial election. Alberta finance minister Pat Nelson released the province’s 11th straight balanced budget March 24, which some critics suggest deliberately underestimates the revenue forecasts […] Read more

EDMONTON – While most farmers have made their plans for seeding, few are planning what their harvest will look like. The Canadian Grain Commission, however, is thinking a little further ahead. It has been traveling the show circuit this spring asking farmers to send it samples of the grain that comes off their combines this […] Read more

A useful discussion on Canadian Wheat Board programs almost broke out at a recent directors’ meeting in Camrose, but instead farmers’ spent three hours rehashing the 30-year-old pro-board and open market argument. The meeting’s contentious tone was set early when board supporters questioned Canadian Wheat Board director Jim Chatenay’s loyalty to farmers’ interests after Chatenay […] Read more

EDMONTON – The pens of purebred cattle looked out of place among the almost empty Sportex building. In half of the building were a row of alpacas, a petting zoo, pony rides and a few pots and pans and farm toy displays. Being one of only two cattle producers among the pots and pans, tractors […] Read more

A new study has found that a single well or flaring battery can reduce rural property values by as much as 10 percent. Published in December, the Impact of Oil and Gas Activity of Rural Residential Property Values study showed that a single well or flaring battery “reasonably close” to a rural residential home can […] Read more

EDMONTON – Alberta’s agriculture minister is hopeful the American border will soon be open to Canadian cattle, after her recent trip to Washington with Alberta premier Ralph Klein. “I don’t want to put a date on it,” Shirley McClellan said the day after she and Klein returned from presenting their case to U.S. officials in […] Read more

A new website has been launched aimed directly at women in rural Alberta. The website, www.ruralwomen.ca, was launched with the click of a mouse March 16 after a survey of more than 600 rural women said they needed a way to feel connected. “We want to reduce the isolation of rural women,” said Joan Gregorwich […] Read more

EDBERG, Alta. – For Gerrit and Laurie Beekman, hindsight shows what they should have done. When the couple bought their 80-sow hog farm in 1991, they should have built an on-farm processing plant instead of expanding to a 200-sow operation. Then in 1998, when the price of hogs collapsed, the couple should have taken another […] Read more

An Alberta MLA has introduced an amendment to his private member’s bill that has revived the Alberta government’s attempts to create a dual market for wheat and barley sales. The first bill was dependent on the federal and provincial governments coming to some kind of agreement on the introduction of a 10-year test market for […] Read more

An Alberta university has established a bursary to help students hard hit by BSE. Augustana University College in Camrose established the bursary as recognition that some of its students have been directly affected by the fallout of the discovery of BSE in Alberta. “We know a place like this ought to be responsive to this […] Read more