Michael Raine

Winter winds can blow holes in cattle producers’ pocket books. Combined with cold temperatures, they can drive up feeding costs dramatically. Providing adequate shelter for cattle will pay for itself in saved feed costs, but will also mean fewer frozen ears and less susceptibility to disease. Trevor Yurchak of Alberta Agriculture said reducing wind speed […] Read more

Feathers on chickens don’t help them fly and may be fluttering in the way of producer profits. Avigdor Cahaner, an agriculture professor at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel, said his research to improve broiler chicken production has led him to a featherless bird. The red, crossbred bird stays cleaner due to its lack of feathers […] Read more

The 2002 season injured breeding programs for prairie grains. Insects and poorly timed weather near Edmonton left plant breeders who traditionally see yields of 1,300-1,500 grams per plot harvesting only 200. That limits their ability to study yield data. Two years of drought at Saskatoon claimed the last remnants of some lines of breeder barley […] Read more

Castrating bulls when they are young produces more profit, say cattle researchers and production consultants. “There are a lot of differing thoughts about castration timing, but what we know in the feeding industry is that early castration and implantation with hormones produces more healthy steers at the slaughter plant,” said Joyce Van Donkersgoed, an Alberta […] Read more

Catching snow is one of the most important ways to keep water on the farm. According to Environment Canada, only 25 percent of annual precipitation comes in the form of snow, but it is the single most important source for surface water used in livestock operations and households. Trevor Yurchak of Alberta Agriculture says the […] Read more

German credit union (volksbank) and co-operative executives laughed and nodded every time a Canadian co-op or credit union expert told of the problems faced by those organizations in Canada. “We have so much in common. Much of the challenges seems to reside in human nature,” said Paul Gerhard Armbruster, of the German Co-operative and Raiffeisen […] Read more

Lameness, which affects more than 10 percent of horses, can limit or end an animal’s useful working life. But David Wilson says it doesn’t have to be that way. “It is a big loss to the industry every year, and often there is treatment available that may improve the situation,” said the equine surgeon from […] Read more

Trish Dowling expects to spend a lot of time on the phone over the next few years. The pharma-toxicologist from the University of Saskatchewan’s Western College of Veterinary Medicine is co-director of the Global Food Animal Residue Avoidance Databank Canada. The new agency, which deals with livestock poisoning and extra-label use of medications in Canada, […] Read more

Allan Cessna is searching for something sought by few scientists: antibiotics in the soil. Cessna, an Agriculture Canada water scientist on loan to the National Water Research Institute in Saskatoon, recently received unexpected help when the Saskatchewan government announced it will fund a $141,300, four-year research project to examine whether two common hog antibiotics are […] Read more

Agrologists say feed supplies are rebounding from the brink of disaster in drought-damaged Saskatchewan and Alberta. “While things aren’t great and prices are really high, it looks like for a lot of guys there might be enough to get through the winter, or at least get close,” said Brian Doig, an animal agrologist with Saskatchewan […] Read more