Michael Raine

A phosphate-processing soil fungus didn’t improve lentil and chickpea growth in recent trials conducted in the brown soils near Swift Current, Sask. JumpStart, a commercial product from Saskatoon inoculant maker Philom Bios, contains the fungus Penicillium bilaii. It was first developed by Agriculture Canada at Lethbridge. The fungus takes phosphates that are otherwise unavailable to […] Read more

Livestock populations in Canada were variable in 2002 as cattle fell and hogs rose. The impact of a second year of drought in the cattle country of Alberta and Saskatchewan, losses for cattle feeders and weak hog prices were reflected mainly in Alberta statistics. Other provinces fared better. The Canadian cattle inventory as of Jan. […] Read more

A former senior Greenpeace director told more than 1,000 agricultural crop suppliers recently that the environment is more durable than the public imagines and that industry’s role in society is often underrated as a result. Patrick Moore brought his controversial message and confrontational style to Saskatoon during the Canadian Association of Agri-Retailers annual convention and […] Read more

David Castle told a crowd gathered in Saskatoon last week that regulators, processors, producers and consumers need to delve deeper into the true meaning of food labels. Castle, an assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Guelph in Ontario, spoke Feb. 11 at the University of Saskatchewan. He told the crowd that the current […] Read more

Arvesta Corporation is doing things differently than many other farm chemical companies. It has no plans to spend a lot of money or time developing new compounds. It doesn’t plan to erect a lot of buildings or send staff to visit farmyards with new half-tons. Rather, the company hopes to build its business by sticking […] Read more

Alberta’s senior beef grader says prairie producers have improved meat quality in the past few years, but more must be done. Fred Taylor, the Canadian Beef Grading Agency’s grade standards supervisor in Alberta, told producers at the recent Cattle Congress in Saskatoon that he sees the good and the bad of western Canadian production practices […] Read more

Phil Needham projected his photograph onto a screen in a darkened Saskatoon meeting room. It was an instant hit. Exclamations of “oh, wow,” and breathy whistles came from farmers attending a Concord seed drill owners meeting last week. “Two-hundred bushel wheat crops tend to do that to them,” said Needham, an agronomist with Opti-Crop of […] Read more

Until now, some genetically modified plants were too complex or expensive to build. A new Saskatoon company is creating the breeding tools to overcome the problem and hopes to grow itself along with some new crops. Most GM technology is limited by its ability to transfer a single trait to an organism in a single […] Read more

OSLER, Sask. – Bryce Fisher built his farm by watching others and taking the best of those businesses and incorporating them into his own. “I didn’t have anything, so starting from scratch you can’t afford to do things poorly … and can’t be afraid to change or learn to do new stuff. If it pays, […] Read more

Canada’s definition of new plant traits is hurting the country’s plant breeding industry, say researchers. Canadian regulations require that most plants developed through mutagenesis and traditional breeding techniques that contain traits “substantially different” than their parents, be tested for environmental stability and food safety. Mutagenesis is a plant breeding process in which seeds of a […] Read more