Most popular stories on producer.com for 2020

It’s been a record-setting year for traffic on the Western Producer’s website, www.producer.com.

We’ve tracked more than 5 million pageviews on the site in the past year, and we’ve still got a little more than a week to go.

Here are the top 10 stories on our site for 2020:

10. Online auction shatters record – In the midst of a global pandemic, electronic bidding and online attendance shattered past records for a Ritchie Brothers equipment auction held in Regina March 24-25.

A Ritchie Bros. auction in Saskatchewan drew a large online crowd and high prices last week. | Screen capture/Getty image

9. Small slaughter plants not the answer: Unrau – About 15 years ago, Martin Unrau assumed that small slaughter plants made sense.

After traveling to Europe, Asia, Australia, Mexico and across the United States with the CCA, it became clear to Martin Unrau that bigger is better. | File photo

8. Is it better to hold farmland or gold? – Imagine it’s the year 2000 and there are two investors, with $1 million each. One investor buys $1 million worth of gold and the other purchases $1 million worth of Saskatchewan farmland. By 2020, who is better off?

7. Morris Industries receives creditor protection – A Saskatoon judge has granted the Morris Group, including its mainstay Morris Industries, financial protection from its creditors.

Morris Industries cited extraordinary inventory costs, American steel tariffs and a poor agricultural economy for its financial difficulties. | File photo

6. Value-added business discovers gold in straw – Value-added has been a buzzword in agriculture for decades, and one family in southern Alberta has taken the term to heart to create several products out of one resource — straw.

Gabby, left, Corrie, Charlotte and Dave Fisher manufacture and sell straw pellets from their farm near Blackie, Alta. | Janet Kanters photo

5. Corral-style traps help control wild pigs in Sask. – Efforts to control Saskatchewan’s wild pig population are beginning to show positive results, according to an official at the Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corp.

50 pigs were caught in one Jager-Pro trap at a location in the United States. | Jager Pro photo

4. Suddenly agriculture is important – A trend has developed in the business news channels over the past week that has not been hard to miss. Suddenly the CEO’s of the big agriculture and food concerns are being featured front and centre during the business segments.

It took a major pandemic for people to notice the remarkable things that our farms and agricultural businesses perform every day. | File photo

3. Farm ends up with all-women crew this year – Circumstances, not design, led Todd Moen to an all-female farm crew this year. But the Elrose, Sask., farmer says he would hire one again anytime.

Sydney Walls, left, Elaine Moen, Kandace Moen, Todd Moen, Mariah Moen, Pauline Muschner and Elisabeth Hesse stand in front of a combine on the Moen farm near Elrose, Sask. | Photo courtesy of the Moen family

2. Farm sale includes two ‘new’ tractors – Nobody seems to know why Danny Spence bought a new JD 4760 back in 1992 and then stored it until he passed away last January.

For about $100,000 in 1992, a Canadian farmer could buy a Deere 4760 and many did, but only one was parked for 28 years. | Ritchie Bros. photo

1. New Alberta feedlot to open next year – A new 40,000-head feedlot north of Enchant, Alta., is on pace to start accepting cattle as early as March.

Serfas Farms began the project in June and it is expected to be fully complete in the third quarter of 2021. The new build is likely the first large from-scratch feedlot to be built in the region within the past decade. | Twitter/@KevinSerfas photo