Mary MacArthur

Sunny Boy, the breakfast cereal that started the day in thousands of prairie homes since the Great Depression, is expected to soon be back on grocery store shelves after a 10-month absence. The company that makes the famous Canadian breakfast cereal presented too good an opportunity to pass up for members of the Schroeder family, […] Read more

EDMONTON – Alberta’s agriculture minister has rejected a request for $16 per pig aid by the province’s hog producers. Shirley McClellan told producers to wait and see how the new national agriculture aid program will help them. Alberta producers can apply for a cash advance under the $5.2 billion Canadian Agricultural Income Stabilization Program. “The […] Read more

British Columbia ranchers in need of hay may still get an early Christmas present from Alberta farmers despite disagreements between the organizers and B.C. government officials about load regulations. Hay West organizer Joe Niessen hopes to have two or three more truckloads of donated hay leave Alberta for hard-hit B.C. ranchers on Dec. 13. But […] Read more

NISKU, Alta. – A proposed prairie-wide oat checkoff could set the standard for other prairie commodity organizations. The Prairie Oat Growers Association wants to institute individual oat checkoffs in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, but have them used collectively by a single prairie-wide commodity organization. That would eliminate the need for three sets of administration and […] Read more

NISKU, Alta. – The oats farmers grow in the future may produce more bushels, be healthier for the heart and may even have a slight taste of vanilla. The main research will continue to be on varietal development, but Quaker Oats, one of the largest users of oats, is also searching for that something extra […] Read more

People in Alberta’s agriculture industry who use a lot of natural gas in non-winter months will now be eligible for natural gas rebates. Changes to the Natural Gas Rebate Program will allow those who operate grain dryers and forage dehydrators, irrigate crops or operate commercial greenhouses to pick the months they use the most natural […] Read more

Corporate businesses unable to pay their taxes because of bovine spongiform encephalopathy can apply to the Alberta government for interest relief on their overdue taxes. “Alberta Revenue will consider requests for relief from interest on corporate income taxes if the corporation is unable to pay its tax due to market conditions resulting from BSE,” said […] Read more

At times Lynn Grocock feels more like a packing clerk in a grocery store or a computer technician than a librarian offering book advice. Grocock, a librarian at the Wainwright, Alta., Public Library, said staff spend a good part of each day packing books, unpacking books, hauling books to the courier or post office and […] Read more

GRANDE PRAIRIE, Alta. – Feeding bison heifers and bulls together in the same feedlot will still get good carcass results, showed a northern Alberta study. “There doesn’t seem to be a problem mixing bulls and heifers,” said Bruce Rutley, applied research co-ordinator for the Peace Country Bison Association. The initial study is good news for […] Read more

Growing up poor as a preacher’s kid was good preparation for becoming a farmer, a central Alberta producer told a farm women’s conference “I believe God prepares us for what we are going to be in the future. He was preparing me for being a farmer,” said Dorothy Marshall of Rosalind, Alta. “I spent my […] Read more