Masks are mandatory in all indoor public spaces in Saskatchewan effective Thursday, Nov. 19. The government announced more restrictions today as cases of COVID-19 continue to rise and hospitalizations increase. As of Tuesday there were 2,055 active cases in the province, with 71 in hospital and 15 of those in intensive care units. There have […] Read more
News
Sask. MLAs resume sitting Nov. 30
The first session of Saskatchewan’s new legislative assembly will begin Nov. 30 with a speech from the throne. The assembly has been reconfigured to create more room between MLAs and plexiglass shields are being installed on desks, said a government news release. Members will all wear masks in the assembly, and the number of MLAs […] Read more
Sask. expands mandatory mask order
Masks must be worn indoors in 59 more Saskatchewan communities, effective Monday, Nov. 16. A new public health order was issued Nov. 13 and is in place until at least Dec. 4. Regina, Saskatoon and Prince Albert were already covered by a mandatory mask order. Health minister Paul Merriman and chief medical health officer Dr. […] Read more
Telus expands reach into agriculture
Some data management systems have sprung from the field and reached for the sky, but a major telecommunications provider is reaching down from the clouds to connect with the ground. Telus has launched a global agricultural data management company that will offer farmers a way to string together the streams of data that increasingly flow […] Read more
Ag visions collide in Africa
Africa has become the battleground for two competing visions of agriculture. Gregg Doud, chief agricultural trade negotiator for the Office of the United States Trade Representative, recently outlined those conflicting visions in a speech he delivered at an event organized by the Agricultural Business Council of Kansas City. He said the European Union has adopted […] Read more
Farmers remove guesswork from canola grading mystery
For Gord and Patrick Keller, 2019 was the last straw. “Last year was that harvest from hell,” Patrick said, describing the frustration of trying to get a definitive grade on their canola in a year that saw frost in June, hail in July, then frost again in August. “We drove samples all over the countryside […] Read more
Dates set for ag ministers’ meetings
Federal, provincial and territorial ministers of agriculture will meet Nov. 20 and Nov. 27 to discuss improving business risk management programs. Federal agriculture minister Marie Claude Bibeau said she is confident counterparts from Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia will be willing to contribute their share to make significant improvements to AgriStability, the program most criticized […] Read more
‘Messy’ fields may help bottom line
A University of Calgary scientist says fields that contain wetlands or bush are more productive than many farmers think
Paul Galpern would like to see a lot more messy fields. The University of Calgary landscape ecologist and data scientist said fields that contain wetlands or bush are more productive than many farmers think. His research has shown this. “Wooded areas, wetlands, pasture area, shelterbelts, those are the wild places, what I call the messy […] Read more
Ag sector urged to think outside the box in labour search
Industry told to start looking beyond traditional areas, including bigger cities and non-agricultural university education
About 68 percent of unemployed Canadians will not move to another province for a job. That number, which comes from a 2017 Statistics Canada survey, is a problem for industries that need labour, including the agricultural sector. Agricultural companies may need a different approach to solve the labour mobility problem, says Ryan Riese, national director […] Read more
Website to help farmers compare crop yields
Agriculture Canada’s Canadian Crop Metrics tool contains information on drought classifications, frost risk, precipitation and weather forecasts
Farmers, analysts and the entire grain sector have a new one-stop shop for everything related to crop yields. Agriculture Canada recently released its new Canadian Crop Metrics tool available at www.agr.gc.ca/atlas/cropmetrics. “It allows the user to look at a specific region and generate reports, graphs and tables to compare current conditions to historical for 11 […] Read more
