Farm dealership Earns excellence recognition
Rocky Mountain Equipment in Westlock, Alta., has achieved Case IH Pinnacle Excellence status in all five areas of its business: sales, marketing, operations, parts and service.
The company-wide program recognizes dealerships for achievement in areas that are important for both dealers and Case IH. It helps dealers boost their business while improving customer service.
For more information, visit caseih.com.
Ag-Info Centre celebrates 500,000 calls
Employees at Alberta Agriculture’s Ag-Info Centre have now answered more than 500,000 toll free phone calls since 2002.
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Canada’s plant hardiness zones receive update
The latest update to Canada’s plant hardiness zones and plant hardiness maps was released this summer.
The centre, which is located in Stettler, helps producers with agricultural and business management advice as well as directing them to government resources.
It is staffed by crop, beef, forage and business development specialists and agriculture resource agents.
All of the specialists are agrologists, many with graduate degrees and all with extensive practical experience. The centre also takes e-mail questions through duke@gov.ab.ca and has walk-in clientele as a field office.
The centre is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday and can be reached at 310-FARM (3276) or at duke@gov.ab.ca.
Research identifiesinfected cattle
Research is underway to identify proteins secreted by Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP) that can elicit a MAP-specific cell mediated immune response.
MAP causes Johne’s disease, which is a chronic infectious disease of ruminants.
Funding is from the National Check-off and Canada’s beef science cluster.
The goal is to find a reliable, sensitive and specific diagnostic test that accurately identifies MAP carriers in the early stages of infection, which would help control the disease.
No effective vaccines or treatments are available, and diagnostic tests fail to identify many infected animals in the pre-clinical state.
For more information, visit the Beef Cattle Research Council’s website.
Farmers’ Advocate Office hires specialist
Michele Del Colle of St. Albert, Alta., is the new surface rights, land and energy specialist at the Farmers’ Advocate Office in Alberta.
Colle will provide information on legislation and policy and advise landowners on their responsibilities, negotiations and requests for compensation.
Past experience includes industry, the Energy and Utilities Board and the Energy and Resources Conservation Board.
Colle has trained as a land agent and has chartered mediator designation.
She can be contacted at 310-FARM (3276) or at michele.delcolle@gov.ab.ca.
Trade mission visits India, Sri Lanka
An Alberta delegation of three companies recently participated in a trade mission to India and Sri Lanka.
The companies from the crop, genetics and agricultural equipment manufacturing sectors took booth space at the Agritech India trade show in Bangalore.
Agritech India is the largest agricultural show in southern India and focuses on a wide range of agricultural sectors. One company also took booth space at the Food Pro show in Chennai.
The market in this part of India differs substantially from northern India in terms of business culture and agricultural needs.
It represents an opportunity for the companies to establish a network of potential clients and promote their products.
Sri Lanka is a new market with potential for growth in agri-food and other agricultural sectors.
Local companies showed interest in canola margarine and vegetable oil, health products, animal nutrition products and pet food, animal feed, pulses, fertilizers and agricultural equipment from Alberta.
CropChoice$ 2015 available
Cropchoice$ is a crop planning tool offered by Alberta Agriculture’s economics branch. The free software allows producers to plan next year’s crop and analyze break-even price and profit situations with yield and production costs for this year’s crop.
It can review up to 40 dry land and irrigated crops on up to 32 fields.
The software measures the risk associated with each alternative, each crop mix and each management scenario.
Soil fertility, moisture conditions and market expectations can be part of a producer’s estimates of worst, best and most likely values for yields and prices. It comes with per acre average cost estimates, by crop and soil zone, based on AgriProfit$ benchmarks. These averages can be a starting point and modified to match a farm operation’s situation.
A free copy can be downloaded at www.agric.gov.ab.ca. For more information, visit the AgInfo Center at 310-FARM (3276).
