Penny Yeager

Farmers in Alberta’s Peace River area may have the worst insect battle in the province this crop year, according to Grande Prairie’s crop specialist. “I don’t know if we were overdue or what, but the insect gods are smiling on us,” said John Huffman of Alberta Agriculture. Bertha armyworms and lygus bugs are both potential […] Read more

When a pig spills its guts some people are willing to analyze the inside information. A Fort Assiniboine, Alta., man says the spleen from a freshly butchered pig gives him long-range weather forecasts, an art he’s been honing for about 10 years. “You’ve got to tell it the way you see it, whether you’re right […] Read more

Producers shouldn’t bet the family farm on long-range weather forecasts, according to officials. “Although these are based on solid principles, the reliability is not absolute,” said Peter Dzikowski, a weather specialist with Alberta Agriculture. “I would probably bet just a very little bit that these would be correct.” According to Environment Canada, overall spring temperatures […] Read more

A Grande Prairie, Alta., hog producer who owes his bank $2.2 million after an ill-timed expansion says he’d make the same decision again. “I’m sure if I rolled the clock back to that day I’d make the same decision and expand the operation just because it’s what’s needed. The industry has to do those sorts […] Read more

A nutritional study shows Katahdin lamb is much lower in cholesterol than other meat or poultry. “We were confident the study would be positive. We know it tastes good and we hoped it would be nutritionally positive,” said Duane Rose, chair of the Saskatchewan Katahdin Marketing Group. The group hired researchers from the University of […] Read more

LEDUC, Alta. – Fusarium head blight isn’t well acquainted with Alberta, but the traveling plant fungal disease is looking for an introduction. “Alberta is nowhere near a problem but there’s potential. I don’t know any reason why it couldn’t come here,” said Randall Clear, mycologist with the Canadian Grain Commission. Fusarium graminearum, the strain that […] Read more

LEDUC, Alta. – “This is what you don’t want to see happen in Alberta,” said Alan Slater, as he described fusarium in several American states. “The disease has devastated an industry and some producers,” he told a group at a March 25 fusarium head blight seminar here. Slater, manager of Canadian barley operations for Busch […] Read more

LEDUC, Alta. -ÊAlberta producers should be rewarded for having fusarium-free cereal crops instead of having their grain pooled with infected supplies. That’s the message Pat Durnin of the Alberta Grain Commission brought to a fusarium head blight seminar in Leduc March 25. “Our system has tended to pool and blend away our problems,” he said. […] Read more

A judge’s decision throws another wrench in the plans of Alberta communities wanting to oust their video lottery terminals. “We’ve been fighting this for two years and who would have expected that in two years it would still be like this?” asked pastor Kirk MacNeil, who is working with the Lacombe and District Ministerial Association […] Read more

Government officials and farmers agree that Alberta’s income disaster program isn’t effective for multiple bad crop years. But government says that’s the way the Farm Income Disaster Program, implemented in 1995, is designed. “It’s a disaster program. It’s not income stabilization. Don’t expect it to stabilize income year after year. It’s there for your disasters […] Read more