Michael Raine

REGINA – Most combines waste grain because they are improperly adjusted or maintained, says combine parts builder George Kuchar of Illinois. “If there is grain in that field that doesn’t leave through the combine’s hopper or is damaged, then that combine isn’t set properly,” said the tall American. After 11 years as a custom combiner […] Read more

REGINA – Its $4,600 price tag still isn’t cheap, but a new product from Australia makes ultrasound pregnancy testing affordable and safe for many producers. Scantech, which works with ruminants, camelids and pigs, detects amniotic fluid surrounding a fetus. Its Canadian distributors say it will detect pregnancy in horses beginning at 11 days, cattle at […] Read more

Neil McGregor peeled off his latex gloves after setting the bag of 2,500 tails on the floor. “I think they’re starting to thaw out,” said the member of the Saskatoon Wildlife Federation as he glanced down through yellow-tinted, hunter’s glasses at the six kilogram bag. McGregor and several others had been counting Richardson’s ground squirrel […] Read more

EATONIA, Sask. – Isabelle Hoffman knew her husband had a habit of attending auction sales and seldom came home without one treasure or another, but even she was surprised with what the family found after his death last Christmas. By the time Oscar Hoffman died at the age of 75, he had amassed one of […] Read more

REGINA – Dave Heaton went back into his shop in Rockyford, Alta., after listening to farmers at farm equipment shows last year. Now he’s back with what farmers said they needed. The manufacturer of farm and turf equipment had two new products at the Western Canada Farm Progress Show held in Regina June 19-21. They […] Read more

Information is the internet’s currency, and someone is making a living from yours. “Farmers are fairly good consumers,” says Bruce Hill, an agricultural computer consultant and educator from Imperial, Sask. “They buy a lot of stuff. They do a lot research, so they can spend a lot of time on-line. They can be very exposed.” […] Read more

Trees pass by the dining room window of Roy Audet’s ranch house in Milk River, Alta. The Milk River, shallow enough to walk across last fall, reached flood stage by early this week. Audet said he is happy to have the “drip, drip” of water falling from his kitchen ceiling into a pan on the […] Read more

Jean Clavelle grew up amidst pens of cattle, so spending 28 days last October watching 17,000 head in her family’s feedlot near Viscount, Sask., didn’t seem that unusual to her. “What was unusual was to just watch them and nothing else. Watch their lives unfold, hour after hour,” said the former animal behaviour graduate student […] Read more

Despite recent moisture in parts of Alberta and southern Saskatchewan, five years of dry conditions have left forests and grassland vulnerable to fires. For many areas between Lethbridge, Alta., and Prince Albert, Sask., it is the driest 18-month period since 1885, according to Agriculture Canada statistics. “Everyone has to think long and hard about fire […] Read more

50¡ 39.229, W 107¡ 29.584 may be the easiest way to find this prairie treasure on the northern edge of the Missouri Coteau. Sandcastles and Sunken Hill are unique sand and clay formations caused by wind, water and subterranean collapse. The area is on the northern banks of the South Saskatchewan River where Lake Diefenbaker […] Read more