After a day-long workshop, the women at a rural women’s conference were standing on their chairs doing war whoops that wouldn’t be out of place at a hockey arena. The more than 100 women had been broken into four teams and were cheering on their teammates who were using a child’s golf club as they […] Read more
News
Women raise their energy – and the roof
Plants may become landmine detectors
Explosive danger lurks just beneath the earth’s surface on many playgrounds, pastures and fields across the Middle East, Africa, and southeast Asia. Unearthing these clandestine killers usually takes massive amounts of time, money, energy and manpower. Sometimes, it only takes a step. University of Alberta professor Michael Deyholos hopes to replace manpower with green power, […] Read more
Farm leader hears dairy barn calling
Leo Bertoia doesn’t yearn for a sunny, winter getaway to Mexico. Instead, the Langham, Sask., dairy farmer looks forward to the day when he can spend more time at home, away from airports, hotel rooms and international conferences. Living out of a suitcase can have its moments, says the former president of the Dairy Farmers […] Read more
$200 million for cull cattle aid
The federal government is expected to soon announce a cull cow assistance program that could be worth $200 million if all the provinces contribute their 40 percent. According to federal and industry sources and Ontario agriculture minister Steve Peters, the program will be retroactive to Sept. 1 and run for one year. As outlined last […] Read more
Wild boars prove elusive for hunters
It may take more than a bounty on the hundreds of wild boars in a central Alberta county to control the wily creatures. Since the $50 bounty was implemented this spring, only a dozen pairs of ears have been brought to the Agriculture Service Board office. “Obviously it’s not very effective,” said agriculture fieldman Allan […] Read more
GM opposition a threat to poor nations: Whelan
The increasingly bitter debate over the safety of genetically modified crops threatens to sabotage all the benefits that biotechnology can bring to agriculture and the developing world, federal international co-operation minister Susan Whelan warned last week. She used a speech in Nairobi, Kenya, on Oct. 29 to call on developing countries to become more involved […] Read more
Thirty years of Farmfair
EDMONTON – Rita and Milton Hennig have been showing their Shorthorn cattle at Farmfair International for 30 years, as long as the Edmonton livestock show has been around. The Andrew, Alta., couple keeps returning because buyers see their cattle at the event. “We’ve had good results from this show,” said Rita, 68, as she sat […] Read more
Chemical standardization between Canada, U.S. urged
A joint appeal by grain growers in Canada and the United States to encourage more standardization between the two countries’ pesticide regulators brought a rebuttal from Ottawa and Washington that much progress has been made. It was not the message that Grain Growers of Canada and the U.S. National Association of Wheat Growers wanted to […] Read more
Exchange rate hedges can protect exporters
Exporters caught by the soaring Canadian dollar should consider hedging their risk with forward contracts, says a foreign exchange risk manager. Michael Levy, senior executive vice-president of Custom House Global Foreign Exchange, told a conference here last week that these contracts offer the most cost-effective protection against losses due to foreign exchange variances. The Canadian […] Read more
To the land of Collies
EDMONTON – Sending Border Collie stock dogs to Scotland is like carrying coals to Newcastle. But next week, two pups from Bob Stephens’ dog Turk will be going to the Isle of Skye in northern Scotland to help improve the Border Collie breed in Scotland, the ancestral home of the stock dog. Stephens, of Kamloops, […] Read more
