Sunny but cool weather allowed Alberta farmers to continue combining last week while showers kept machines idle in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Good harvest progress slowed in early October as rain came and cool weather hampered the drying of crops. Warren Bills of GeoFarm Solutions in Calgary passed a smattering of harvesting operations during a drive […] Read more
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Weather co-operates in Alberta
Prairie farmers stick with people food
The Canadian Wheat Board wants the public to know that prairie farmers are growing wheat to feed people, not automobiles. The marketing agency last week released the results of its 2008 variety survey. In a News release news accompanying the survey, the board noted that 88.4 percent of the wheat seeded in 2008 was destined […] Read more
Ontario Pork loses marketing power
Ontario hog producers are losing their central desk marketing board first established more than half a century ago. Last week, after being petitioned by some producers and holding hearings last summer, the Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission announced Ontario Pork no longer has the mandate to be involved in almost all hog marketing in the […] Read more
Sask. expands water assistance
Governments have increased the share they will pay for Saskatchewan water projects after farmers found the costs too high. Agriculture minister Bob Bjornerud said about a third of the $15 million available through the Farm and Ranch Water Infrastructure Program has been allocated. There are about 25 community wells in the works. He said the […] Read more
Heat gene discovered
Scientists have uncovered another piece of the puzzle of how plants respond to heat. Robert Larkin, assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at Michigan State University, was working on photosynthesis in plants when he uncovered the bZIP28 gene. He and his team found that it regulates the heat stress response in Arabidopsis thaliana, a […] Read more
Knapweed biocontrol creates new problem
Attempts to use gallflies to control spotted knapweed appear to have backfired. Thanks in part to the appetite of the deer mouse, the noxious weed is now widespread in western North America and a growing problem in the northeast. Dean Pearson, a U.S. Department of Agriculture ecologist, said knapweed normally thrives in the inner mountains […] Read more
Effort made to turn annuals into perennials
Agriculture will survive only if producers grow more perennial crops, says an American leader in sustainable agriculture. Wes Jackson, president of the Land Institute in Kansas, said agriculture’s destructive habits began 10,000 years ago and continue today with the economic crutch of oil and gas. Without oil and gas, modern agriculture could not sustain itself, […] Read more
Deflation prophet right?
Robert Prechter’s company, Elliott Wave International, specializes in an arcane form of analysis known as Elliott Wave Theory. Prechter has achieved notoriety for his bold prognostications and is sometimes viewed as either a half-crazed crank or a genius. He predicted the bull market that took off in 1982, when many others had decided that stocks […] Read more
Conservatives hold rural power base
Prime minister Stephen Harper did something Oct. 14 that no Conservative leader has done in 20 years. He won a second consecutive government. Results from early this morning had Harper’s Conservatives winning 143 seats in the 308 seat Parliament. The Opposition was splintered between a weaker Liberal caucus, a stronger New Democratic Party caucus and […] Read more
Horses removed from farm
The Saskatchewan SPCA last week removed 14 animals from a farm near Findlater, about 80 kilometres northwest of Regina. The animals, 13 horses and one pig, were taken to the Johnstone Auction Mart near Moose Jaw. Frances Wach, executive director of the SSPCA, said the organization acted Oct. 7 after receiving a complaint that the […] Read more
