Michael Raine

ST. MARY’S, Ont. – George Taylor traded the screams of Formula race cars and the pounding of pads on the gridiron for the bleat of goats and the staccato rhythm of milking machines. Five years after leaving TSN in Toronto, the former sports broadcaster has returned to his farming roots and runs a successful gourmet […] Read more

A Saskatoon company that pools producer buying power is helping individual producers import ivermectin, at least for the short term. In a bulletin to its members, Farmers of North America began offering generic ivermectin last week. The generic is a lower cost alternative to the brand name versions of the livestock parasite control product. Despite […] Read more

Hail insurance brokers say 2005 has revealed trends they expect will continue in coming years. Higher values of individual claims from fewer producers, increased per acre insurance coverage purchases by growers and the potential of higher premiums will all be part of the future, say insurers. Hurricane Katrina may not have directly damaged producer’s crops […] Read more

Blame for bacterial antibiotic resistance has been levelled at the intensive livestock industry worldwide. The Public Health Agency of Canada is starting an on-farm component to its three-year-old antibiotic resistance surveillance program that may help shed some light on the issue. Resistant bacteria can double the treatment costs and limit the drugs that are effective […] Read more

Calves that are abruptly weaned and then shipped to feedlots are prone to respiratory infections from both viruses and bacteria, say scientists. However low-cost preconditioning of calves before they are shipped can reduce bovine respiratory disease and death. Two weeks of feed adjustment after on-farm weaning and before truck transport can cut feedlot deaths from […] Read more

Microsoft money will be aiding the Canadian livestock industry. The Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization will receive $7 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The University of Saskatchewan-based research unit will use the money to refine the technology it has been developing for vaccine delivery. Young mammals are vulnerable to infectious diseases and […] Read more

RADISSON, Sask. – John Clair began looking for ways to address rising fuel costs in the early 1990s. He knew that the need to farm more acres for less money was the future of dryland agriculture in Western Canada. In 1994 the Radisson farmer moved to conservation tillage and hasn’t missed his cultivator shovels. Now […] Read more

Fuel price increases of nearly 50 percent in one year have encouraged farmers to cut those costs. With technology advances, farm diesel engines are now close to 20 percent more fuel efficient than they were in 1990. To take advantage of those gains, producers must make sure their tractors get as much power onto the […] Read more

PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. – Some rural dwellers don’t want to pay the fee to belong to the Agricultural Producers of Saskatchewan, said delegates to last week’s APAS meeting. Member rural municipalities now pay a six cents per acre fee to maintain membership in APAS, down from the 10 cents assessment with which the organization began. […] Read more