Crop fact sheets available
Three crop varietal fact sheets have been posted to the Alberta Agriculture website to help producers decide what varieties of cereal and oilseed crops to grow.
Agronomic characteristics and disease resistance information are provided for varieties of wheat, barley, oats, rye, triticale, flax and canola.
Pulse agronomic characteristics and disease resistance information are provided for varieties of field peas, chickpeas, lentils, fababeans, dry beans and soybeans.
The silage varieties list includes those that produce the highest forage yield and/or nutritional quality.
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Copies of all crop publications are available online or by calling 780-427-0391.
Canadian Grain Commission appointments
Lonny McKague was recently appointed commissioner of the Canadian Grain Commission for a four-year term and Anthony Douglas (Doug) Chorney has been appointed assistant chief commissioner for five years.
The governor in council appointment is a new approach that is designed to use an open, merit-based selection process to help the federal agriculture minister make recommendations for the positions.
McKague has been an owner and operator of a farm in south-central Saskatchewan for 40 years. He has served as a director and is a founding member of Ogema Elevator Ltd, in Ogema, Sask., as well as a past-director of the Ogema Credit Union.
He is a former president of the Canadian Limousin Association, the Ogema Agricultural Society, and of the local Saskatchewan Stock Growers Association.
Chorney served as Keystone Agricultural Producers (KAP) president from 2011 to 2015. Before that, he was KAP vice-president and served as chair of KAP’s workplace and employment committee.
Chorney has served on several boards of directors for agricultural organizations and currently is vice-chair of the Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council.
Chorney is a professional engineer and farms 1,500 acres of cereal, oilseed and vegetable crops near East Selkirk, Man.
Pulse innovator
Blair Roth has been named the 2017 Alberta Pulse Industry Innovator by the Alberta Pulse Growers.
Now in its third year, the annual award recognizes a person or organization that has helped build Alberta’s pulse industry.
Roth started out in applied research at Alberta Agriculture in the 1980s where he ran field-scale demonstrations for early soybean, lupin, faba bean, chickpea, dry bean, pea and lentil crops.
He helped establish the Alberta Pulse Growers Association, which he then helped transition to the Alberta Pulse Growers Commission in 1989.
In 1990, Roth started working in special crops with Alberta Pool, and then Agricore.
Over the last nine years he has been the director, special crops for Viterra, where he oversees North American procurement, processing and marketing of pulses for the company.
Invasive species official
Delinda Ryerson is the new executive director of the Alberta Invasive Species Council.
Ryerson has been managing natural resources, environmental projects and people in Alberta for more than 20 years.
Previous experience includes roles with the provincial government, Parks Canada, and managing her own independent consulting company.
Ryerson has managed several projects as a biologist and environmental project manager with the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute.
She has organized monitoring and management plans for park wildlife and invasive species as the manager of the resource conservation function at Elk Island National Park.
As well, she has worked on provincial fish harvest regulation changes and other projects as a fisheries biologist with Alberta Fish and Wildlife.
Her independent consultation includes supporting clients from non-profit organizations, and the provincial and federal governments. She is currently serving as the executive director for the Alberta Chapter of the Wildlife Society.
