Members of Manitoba’s cattle community are shaken after an industry leader died in a farm accident just before Christmas. Major Jay Fox, 32, a cattle producer from Eddystone, Man., and former president of the Manitoba Beef Producers, died Dec. 23 after he was pinned under a front-end loader bucket. MBP president Ray Armbruster said the […] Read more
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Man. cattle leader dies in farm accident
Dry, warm fall welcome relief for Alberta
The 2011 growing season got off to a slow start in Alberta, but a long fall brought good to excellent yields and crop quality across much of the province. Dry conditions in the Peace River region and wet, cool conditions in central and southern areas caused farmers early concern, but few acres were left unseeded […] Read more
Above normal spring runoff predicted for Saskatchewan
A trivia game about Saskatchewan would inevitably include questions about the weather, and a good question for 2011 might be: which part of the province received the most rain? Many areas were flooded and soggy, but Stockholm and surrounding area received the most precipitation. The region received 617 millimetres of rain between April 1 and […] Read more
Smartphone app helps combat aphids
University of Guelph researchers have developed a smartphone application to help combat soybean aphids. Aphid Advisor is the product of a research team co-led by Rebecca Hallett, an associate professor at the Ontario university’s School of Environmental Sciences. The program goes a step further than other ag-related apps because it takes field-tested research and provides […] Read more
Breeders aim to ramp up plants’ ability to fight stress
A recent discovery at the University of California, Riverside, could help researchers develop new drought-tolerant crops. The work coming out of Sean Cutler’s laboratory is still new, but it may provide the agriculture industry with a blueprint for further innovations that allow farmers worldwide to get the most out of crops growing under less-than-ideal conditions. […] Read more
Evergreen browning can be difficult to diagnose
A dozen causes can be to blame | Autumn shed most common cause but winter damage and excess moisture also culprits
Grant Wood hates getting calls about the browning of evergreens. “Out of all the (tree) topics, that is the most difficult to talk about because there’s about 12 totally different things that can cause evergreens to brown,” said the assistant professor in the University of Saskatchewan’s plant sciences department. The most common reason is autumn […] Read moreFeedback wanted on land use
A deadline for input into a southern Alberta land use plan has been extended to April 30 from its original deadline of Dec. 19. The Alberta government said Dec. 16 in a news release that it would allow additional feedback on the South Saskatchewan Regional Plan because of concerns about property rights that might affect […] Read more
New organization needed to speak for world’s farmers
GENEVA — A new international farm organization is forming out of the ashes of last year’s collapse of the International Federation of Agricultural Producers. Canada is leading the way. The World Farmers’ Organization has been created with a head office in Rome and former North Dakota National Farmers Union president Robert Carlson as the first […] Read more
Saskatchewan-based speaker youngest in Canadian history
Conservative MP Andrew Scheer agreed to step out of partisan politics to preside over the highly partisan Commons when he won election June 2 as House of Commons speaker. However, he insists that does not mean his constituents do not have a political voice on Parliament Hill. It is just behind the scenes. “In terms […] Read more
Johnson elected new CWB chair
A former Saskatchewan Wheat Pool executive is the new chair of the Canadian Wheat Board. Bruce Johnson, who headed up the pool’s grain group before being fired from that post in 1999, was selected by the wheat board’s board of directors as its new chair Dec. 19. Johnson has served on the CWB’s board since […] Read more
