Livestock Management
Cattle are often grouped and sold in consistent colour patterns at auction sales and herd dispersals. Why is that? After all, knowledgeable cattle producers and others in the field often say it’s what’s beneath the hide that really matters. Feedlots that buy directly from producers are more concerned with the phenotype or makeup of the […] Read more
Livestock Management
Is colour important in cattle industry? – Animal Health
Watch biosecurity risk, horse industry urged
RED DEER – Alberta horse owners should take a lesson from the cattle industry and develop disease prevention measures to protect their animals, a retired veterinarian told an Alberta horse conference. Darrell Dalton said the closing of the American border to horses, embryos or semen would devastate the Alberta horse industry, similar to how BSE […] Read more
Deworming techniques have changed, says vet
RED DEER – Horse owners must change the way they deworm their horses to make it more effective and to slow drug resistance, said a veterinarian specializing in parasite research. Instead of deworming horses every eight weeks, horse owners should deworm twice a year, in the spring and fall, or only if a fecal egg […] Read more
Economist ‘real nervous’ about meat sector
There was no year-end cheer in the messages from market analysts talking to grain and livestock producers’ annual meetings. The livestock sector on both sides of the border is reeling from the after shock of high grain markets in the last year, with bankruptcies and dispersals more common this year, said Richard Anderson, executive vice-president […] Read more
Don’t take water quality for granted
SWIFT CURRENT, Sask. – Twenty years after water quality problems were first linked to cattle performance, livestock experts say it is still underappreciated. “We take water for granted,” said Bob Klemmer, a Saskatchewan livestock development specialist. Yet it is the most important nutrient for cattle, added Andrew Olkowski, a researcher in the University of Saskatchewan’s […] Read more
Effects of FMD linger among British farms
The tragedy of foot-and-mouth disease still reverberates in Great Britain, seven years after it devastated the country’s livestock industry. Farm neighbours still don’t speak to each other and export markets remain in recovery mode. Farmers and officials thought they knew how to deal with serious contagions after dealing with BSE in the 1990s, but the […] Read more
Save money with feed management
SWIFT CURRENT, Sask. – Beef producers should more efficiently manage feed and its costs during the winter, says research scientist Bart Lardner. Lardner of the Western Beef Development Centre at Lanigan, Sask., told producers attending a conference here that feed costs represent 60 to 75 percent of a cow’s annual cost. With hay prices sitting […] Read more
Conservation easements
Saskatchewan landowners Gary and Michele Howland have always been concerned with the health of the environment. So when the retired farm couple realized they could protect a portion of their farm in the Qu’Appelle Valley and get paid for doing it, they jumped on the opportunity. “We’re quite interested in environment questions and in the […] Read more
Waste not
The highway view of Schooten Custom Feedyard is one of a well maintained farm with tidy buildings, orderly pens of cattle and neat rows of rich black compost. “This is a better way to show the public the image of how we handle our manure,” said Shane Schooten, who farms north of Lethbridge with his […] Read more
Food scraps feed soil
From potato peels to Halloween pumpkins, Shirley Lupino will gladly take it all. The Olds, Alta., College composting technician works with Mountainview Regional Waste Commission and the college to manage organic waste from households, farms and the campus. The composting centre has been operating since 1995 as a research facility, but it also accepts material […] Read more
