Travelling at 140 kilometres per hour, eight metres above the ground, tucked inside the cockpit of a fully loaded plane is no place to let your mind wander. “You can’t lose your focus. You have to keep the job No. 1,” said Tom Kinniburgh. The Taber, Alta., aerial applicator of agricultural chemicals said the main […] Read more
Stories by Michael Raine
U.S. official pushes for border opening
RAPID CITY, South Dakota – The 49th parallel remains a hot topic for the American ruminant industry. The American border needs to be open to Canadian beef, bison and live animals said Bruce Knight, U.S. Department of Agriculture undersecretary of marketing and regulations. He told 550 bison ranchers attending the International Bison Conference in Rapid […] Read more
Old batteries poison cattle
Lead poisoning in cattle is appearing more often on the Prairies. Barry Blakely’s laboratory at the University of Saskatchewan is seeing up to a fourfold increase in cases this year. “Farmers can put an end to this right now. They have to clean up old batteries and avoid putting any more out into places where […] Read more
Cattle feeding profits draw interest
Rising feed costs and the Canadian dollar are leading some cow-calf operators to consider backgrounding as a new revenue source. “We’re hearing from cow-calf producers looking to get into the business,” said Susan Eckland, executive director of the Saskatchewan Cattle Feeders Association during the organization’s annual Feedlot Management School held in Saskatoon at the beginning […] Read more
Hail more damaging than tornado
Roy Benko was out picking up large, flat chunks of ice from the farmyard to show his wife when he looked above him and noticed flying debris. “I backed into the shed. I kept backing up. I needed someplace to hide. I ran for the tractor cab. I made it inside. Then the roof came […] Read more
‘Best job in world’ brings some bruises – Editorial Notebook
Home on the Range. The song, off key and unexpected, sung under the stony gazes of Mount Rushmore’s four presidents, lifted my spirits and I became aware that I was grinning broadly at the singer from my front row, journalist’s perch. I forgot the pain of a bruised tailbone on a concrete stadium bench as […] Read more
Monitor bison to halt disease
RAPID CIY, South Dakota – David Hunter, chief veterinarian to the world’s largest bison rancher Ten Turner, asks a good question. “There were 60 million bison on the plains when we (European settlers) arrived. There weren’t 60 million rounds of ammunition sold in the few years it took to get down to 500 to 1,000 […] Read more
Heat wave continues assault on West
The weather across the Canadian Prairies and the U.S. Great Plains has been so hot for so long that crops are suffering. On the Canadian Prairies, crops that had gotten off to a good start by adequate spring moisture have been turned off by prolonged drought. Agronomist Phil Thomas of Agritrend in Alberta said the […] Read more
Going back to where the buffalo roam
CUSTER STATE PARK, S.D. – Wagon trains once regularly plied the trails of South Dakota bringing settlers, government surveyors, soldiers and their suppliers. A population increase during the last 25 years of the 1800s brought about the near extermination of 60 million bison that populated the North American plains. A new wagon train came to […] Read more
Cattle die in U.S. heat wave
RAPID CITY, S.D. – In the American Dakota states, more than 3,000 cattle have reportedly been killed by the heat. Located mainly in the eastern North Dakota and South Dakota border region, many of the dead animals were in feedlots away from cooling winds or dugouts, say South Dakota state officials. While Montana producers have […] Read more
