Michael Raine

REGINA – If the souls of bison can hear, then 150 of the beasts might have shivered as aboriginal drumming songs echoed within the metal walls of Regina’s exhibition buildings. Native drummers sang as dancers performed before a tepee and 1,400 people at Regina’s exhibition grounds Nov. 22. As the drumming faded, the story of […] Read more

REGINA, Sask. – Provincial borders are dissolving for farmer co-operatives. In a recent move, Saskatchewan Wheat Pool and United Farmers of Alberta are expanding their business relationship. AgPro, the Sask Pool subsidiary that markets farm supplies and buys grain outside of Saskatchewan, will work with UFA to deliver non-traditional products for each company. In the […] Read more

REGINA – Roofless but not toothless, Regina’s Canadian Western Agribition has opened for another year. As one of the world’s largest agriculture shows, Agribition organizers are anticipating 150,000 people to pass through the gates this year, slightly fewer than last year’s 153,000. Some of those folks will notice there are 34,000 square feet of walls […] Read more

Ed Stelmach’s agriculture department in Alberta is making a priority of processing any farm income support claims, but has no new money to aid farmers. “There’s no new money,” said Frank Blush, of Alberta’s farm lending services branch. “The safety net programs available to producers haven’t changed over the past two years, but we are […] Read more

WINNIPEG – Ken Rivers is going south to Vancouver. He winches the straps tight on his load of heavy equipment parts, checks his customs papers and pulls onto four-lane Highway 75 at Winnipeg. Rivers has no deliveries for the United States, but he will join thousands of other freight haulers who avoid the Canadian highway […] Read more

Too much of a good thing can be bad. Insect-resistant Bt corn hybrids are a case in point. As Bt corn hybrids make their way into Western Canada, farmers must use proper management strategies associated with growing the genetically modified crop. Insects such as the European corn borer are poisoned by a bacterium that is […] Read more

If it weighs, reads, calculates, indicates or otherwise communicates on the farm and is modern and electronic, then it probably is computerized. That means when the bell tolls on New Year’s Day 2000, some 400-odd days from now, automated equipment on the farm may stop working if it is not attended to. Barbara Warner of […] Read more

WESTLOCK, Alta. – Early on a clear, northern Alberta evening, with the din of tractors and anhydrous feed cultivators only recently silenced for the night, 46 farmers came to hear three candidates vying for the Canadian Wheat Board director position for district one. And when farmer Gerry Gill, of Legal, Alta., asked a question about […] Read more

In the prairie provinces, farmers return empty containers to centralized collection sites. From there pesticide manufacturers pay to have the containers shredded, while diverting some money to recycling programs. But the Toronto-based Crop Protection Institute, representing pesticide manufacturers and dealers, is calling for a system that returns the jugs to retailers. Paul Cook of CPI […] Read more

While the Crop Protection Institute focuses on a pilot project that asks farmers in Saskatchewan to return empty farm chemical containers to dealers rather than dropping them at designated sites, critics are sizing up the Manitoba disposal model. “We have a system in place in Manitoba that has the lowest rate of dirty containers in […] Read more