Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door. If that famous quote were true, there’d be a lot of rich farmers. Most farmers are always tinkering in their workshops, either modifying equipment or creating something new from scratch. Some of their inventions make it into commercial production but countless […] Read more
Opinion — page 693
Don’t expect your product to sell itself – The Bottom Line
If you want to see two examples of demand creation and destruction that helped first raise up then hammer down crop and commodity prices, just look at the BDI and two big ethanol plants in North Dakota. The BDI is the Baltic Dry Index, which is a measure of what it costs to rent a […] Read more
Jan. 27, 2009
Yesterday we visited a young farm couple from Schleitheim. Someone had told me they bought a cattle farm in Canada. I was interested to know why someone would do that when my neighbours in Westlock, Alta., are liquidating their cattle herds because they’re losing rather than making money. The grapevine was wrong. Karl Gabriel, 33, […] Read more
February: friend or foe
January’s almost done and it’s been a month of flatness in the crop futures markets. Soybeans came in about $9.80 and are going out near that level. Corn’s down a bit, from $4.10 to $3.80, but that’s a lot more stable than the huge fall from last summer or the big rebound in December. Canola […] Read more
Jan. 29, 2009
Yesterday, Robert’s sister Elsbeth brought us six packs of Artemisia tea leaves (40 grams each), for malaria prevention. Malaria, which is transmitted by mosquitoes, is endemic in Zambia. Visitors should take medication for its prevention, especially in the rainy season. The World Health Organization is targeting Zambia for prevention and treatment of malaria. There are […] Read more
Readers offer their perspectives – Editorial Notebook
Abnormally cold winter weather has many of us dreaming about warmer climes. Dianna Hanna is an exception. She farms with her husband, Dale, near Drayton Valley, Alta., and she sent the beautiful photo above, taken last month, with the following message that gives another perspective on the Prairies’ winter wonderland. “As we were fixing dinner, […] Read more
Letters to the editor
Farmers’ money; Methane purpose; Dairy observed; Excess parasites; Same diesel; Auto parts; Stranded horses; Triple E Farmers’ money These comments are in response to the article on the front page of The Western Producer, Jan. 8, concerning the overcharge by the railways to ship farmers’ grain by rail in the 2007-08 crop year. The article […] Read more
Oh deer: taxing wild game meat – Money In Your Pocket
One of the pleasures of hunting for game is filling a freezer with delicacies at far less than grocery store prices for domestic meat. In some cases, however, hunting is a subsistence activity that puts much needed food on a table that otherwise might be bare. So how is it possible that the taxman can […] Read more
No major surprises in Obama’s ag plan – WP editorial
IT is rare that agriculture gets mention in a presidential inaugural address, but Barack Obama’s text referenced it twice. The attention given to his speech was unprecidented because of his status as the first African American president, the tense situation that includes economic crisis and war, and the hope of supporters that his presidency will […] Read more
Harper faces herculean task in coming months – Opinion
ONE of the best lines about former Liberal prime minister Pierre Trudeau came from journalist and satirical wag Larry Zolf. Trudeau was elected as a philosopher king and morphed into Mackenzie King. From his inspirational notions of a “just society” in 1968 that started sounding like Plato or Jean-Jacques Rousseau but quickly lost their lustre, […] Read more
