The Parliamentary Budget Officer recently found flaws with the research projects, including Protein Industries Canada
Protein Industries Canada remains confident in its pace of funding projects to grow the sector, despite a recent report from the Parliamentary Budget Officer. The PBO reported that the governing Liberals 2017 Innovation Superclusters Initiative has been slow to select projects and spend money. In 2017, five superclusters were given a total of $918 million […] Read moreNews
Sask. ag equipment manufacturer goes solar
Maker of Case IH, New Holland and Flexi-Coil brands says it is reducing its carbon foot print while cutting electrical costs
CNH Industrial in Saskatoon is home to the largest solar energy project in the province. More than 1,000 gleaming blue-black panels soak up the sun outside the manufacturer’s facility, where tillage, seeding and harvesting equipment is made under the Case IH, New Holland and Flexi-Coil brands. “This project will yield 331 kilowatts of power for […] Read more
Alta. elevator receives historical designation
The elevator is also home to municipal archives, a farmers market, community garden and large machinery and farm tool display
SPRUCE GROVE, Alta. — The local agriculture society saved Spruce Grove’s elevator from the wrecking ball in 1995. Earlier this month, the provincial government gave it an extra layer of protection with a Provincial Historic Resource designation. The former Alberta Wheat Pool grain elevator, built in 1958, was decommissioned in 1995 and was ready to […] Read more
Barley gene-edited for improved quality
Australian and Scottish researchers say modifying beta-glucan levels in barley may help contribute to lower cholesterol
A team of scientists has shown the potential to rapidly improve barley quality through the gene editing technique called CRISPR. Researchers at the University of Adelaide’s Waite Research Institute, working with colleagues at the James Hutton Institute in Scotland, recently showed how the levels of beta-glucan, a source of fermentable dietary fibre that may contribute […] Read more
Burps to burgers: food sector eyes emissions
Companies look at an additive made of coriander, clove and carrot extracts as a way to reduce methane from cattle
WINNIPEG (Reuters) — Looking to improve milk production, California farmer John Verwey turned to a Swiss-made feed additive designed to make a cow more efficient while reducing methane emissions from cattle burps. The more a cow belches, the more it spends energy that could be used instead for milk production, Verwey reasoned. So two years […] Read more
Exploring the science behind methane emission levels in cattle production
(Reuters) — Scientists have worked for years to reduce methane emissions from cattle burps by changing what cattle eat, or through research on vaccines, genetic modification of cattle and even forehead-mounted masks and backpacks to trap vapours. What is the problem? Methane, the second-most abundant greenhouse gas from human-related activities after carbon dioxide, accounts for […] Read more
Sperm discovery may improve hog breeding
Sugar slows the maturation rate of sperm in pigs, which could extend its storage time inside the sow’s reproductive tract
In a variety of mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians, after mating sperm is stored in a portion of the female reproductive tract called the sperm reservoir. This reservoir in the mammalian lower oviduct, known as the isthmus, regulates sperm function and extends the cells’ viability and lifespan, which are traits necessary for fertility in species […] Read more
Enzyme research may lead to flood resistance
Scientists discover that manipulating plant cysteine oxidases may help enhance crops’ flood-resistance capabilities
The recent discovery of the molecular structure of plant enzymes that control a plant’s response to lower oxygen levels could to lead to ways to manipulate the enzyme function and produce flood-resistant crops. The research was conducted at the University of Sydney in Australia and the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Crops such […] Read more
Auto evolution: a prairie family joins the ride
The author remembers what it was like as her parents started down the unfamiliar road of car ownership in the middle of the last century
SASKATOON — Jim Adamson farmed in Alberta near Harold Hathaway’s place in the 1940s and they worked together for harvest. “Transportation in 1947-48 still involved horses and we had a particularly lively pair of grey Percherons, who delighted in periodically running away for no reason at all and in the process, usually completely demolished a […] Read more
Tougher Sask. trespass laws in limbo
Changes made to Saskatchewan’s trespass laws in 2019 are not yet in effect. That means hunters and others are not legally required to ask for permission to be on private land, even though the government and wildlife organizations recommend that they do. The changes, when enacted, will put the onus on those who want to […] Read more
