Michael Raine

EASTEND, Sask. – Carved in wood the sign reads Stewards of the Land. It was given by the Saskatchewan Stock Growers’ Association to the province’s first winners of an award for environmentally sound practices in managing livestock and land. Set back from a long, lonely, creek-punctuated stretch of rolling road, Ron and Roberta Wolfater’s farm […] Read more

SWIFT CURRENT, Sask. – It seems logical to process durum that’s grown on the Prairies, on the Prairies. But few processing companies have set up shop near the source. Now Pasta D’Aurum (Canada) Ltd. is building its business here with what it calls “a logical move to be in Swift Current.” Raising the money necessary […] Read more

Farm management editor D’Arce McMillan is part of a delegation accompanying federal agriculture minister Ralph Goodale on a trade mission to Japan and Indonesia. The trip is designed to investigate market opportunities for Canadian agricultural products. McMillan files these reports from Tokyo. TOKYO, Japan – Some Canadian food producers might think that Japan, considering its […] Read more

Farm management editor D’Arce McMillan is part of a delegation accompanying federal agriculture minister Ralph Goodale on a trade mission to Japan and Indonesia. The trip is designed to investigate market opportunities for Canadian agricultural products. McMillan files these reports from Tokyo. TOKYO, Japan – The Japanese believe when it comes to food, nothing should […] Read more

Pursuing the 4,000 prairie buyers of 23,000 jugs of Pursuit is keeping the folks at Cyanamid busy this spring. The costly herbicide was packaged in the company’s Puerto Rican plant and jugs sold in Western Canada were filled up to 45 millilitres short due to a malfunctioning weight monitor on the assembly line. Compensation is […] Read more

Politicians and bureaucrats in Saskatchewan are hoping to make silk purses from sows’ ears. The provincial minister of agriculture Eric Upshall chose the Saskatchewan Pork Expo in Saskatoon as the forum to announce the formation of a new department within Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food. Pork Central will provide resources to new and expanding hog producers […] Read more

Crop spraying has long been at the forefront of a debate over pesticide use and consumer safety. Now, innovations in spraying are making it possible to reduce spray drift, making spraying more effective, acceptable and safe, said Dennis Gardisser, an American specialist who was in Saskatoon last week for a meeting of agricultural retailers held […] Read more

Blood-covered snowmobiles, a handgun, an Albertan, two Saskatchewan residents and a dead coyote. The players and the pieces were a fatal mix for the animal and an expensive lesson for the people. Gordon Deck, 34, and Brian Deck, 38, of Denzil, Sask., and Harold Leibel, 39, of Bodo, Alta., were fined $2,300 in total after […] Read more

Elections this month in Saskatchewan Wheat Pool’s odd-numbered districts resulted in 48 delegates being returned to their positions without challenge. Eight first-time delegates also won by acclamation. Seven sub-districts remain, with five scheduled to hold elections and two to leave the posts vacant until later byelections. In district one, subdistrict nine, an election will be […] Read more

Prairie land prices have risen by an average annual rate of three percent since the turn of the century and economists say farmers can expect the average to hold true in the near future. “Historically, land prices are reflected in the expectation of future income,” said Len Bauer, an agricultural economist retired from the University […] Read more