Michael Raine

Beef cattle futures prices have been shot down, but no smoking gun can be seen. Feeder and live cattle futures market prices continued to fall April 8, in a continuation of last week’s tumble downward. April futures are nine percent lower for the month showing the largest short-term drop since January1998. April live cattle futures […] Read more

A new multimillion-dollar research project is looking for diseases’ Achilles’ heel. The Veterinary Infectious Disease Organization in Saskatoon was awarded $26.9 million in grants April 3, creating one of the largest research projects of its type in Canadian history. Bacterium, viruses and parasites search out weaknesses in animals and take advantage of natural gaps in […] Read more

Potassium may help plants through a drought, but drought may also prevent plants from getting enough potassium. The mineral is abundant in most prairie soil, often at rates of more than 10 tonnes per acre. But plants can’t always get it. “Often, early in the season, the soil is too cool to release much potassium […] Read more

Assessing non-genetically modified crops for GM contamination is becoming as simple as a litmus test. EnviroLogix, a company based in Maine, is already producing test kits that can detect in five minutes whether a load of soybeans contains Roundup Ready seeds. Representative samples are taken from a load, crushed and put into water where the […] Read more

Biofuel could solve the income problems of Canadian farmers. An Agriculture Canada report says that if the world’s 30 major economies replace just eight percent of the fossil fuel they consume with fuel produced from grain and oilseeds, commodity prices would rise high enough to solve the farm income crisis. The report shows that if […] Read more

Two western grain companies have sold their shares in canola crusher Canamera Foods Ltd. Central Soya Canada Ltd., which had owned half of Canamera, paid $88 million for the rest of the business last week. The other half had been owned 33.3 percent by Saskatchewan Wheat Pool and 16.7 percent by Agricore United. Canamera was […] Read more

Interest free loans of up to $50,000 are available again this spring to individual grain and vegetable producers to help get the crop in the ground. The federal Spring Credit Advance Program introduced in 2001 has been extended through 2002. Producers of eligible crops can apply for the loans through their commodity organizations, such as […] Read more

A healthy diet of Special K gives crops strength to help survive a drought. Potassium, also known as potash or K, helps plants draw water from the soil, create sugar and produce protein from nitrogen. “Potassium is one of the keys to plant-drought survival,” says Adrian Johnston, an agronomist with the Potash and Phosphate Institute. […] Read more

Sheep producers in Saskatchewan need to produce a more consistent product if they are going to develop a market. That message was sent by three Saskatchewan sheep producers at the Saskatchewan Rural Economic Opportunities Conference in Saskatoon last week. Gord Shroeder operates a 400-ewe, Suffolk-cross farm near Saskatoon, and works for the Saskatchewan Sheep Development […] Read more