Showcase your product
An effective display is an important tool when showcasing products at trade or craft shows, farmers markets and breed association meetings.
“Displays should be designed to attract attention and stop traffic,” says Marian Williams, business development specialist with Alberta Agriculture.
“Knowing your customer is a necessity. Whether it’s being used at the local farmers market or a craft show, a display must be directed at your target market, the buyers.”
When designing your display, look for props to enhance the product and attract attention. Shelves of different heights, small barrels or boxes draped with fabric, baskets, trays, tree branches, trellises and peg boards are all effective and add interest, movement and energy to a display.
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“Access to a display should be easy,” added Williams. “Viewers need to feel invited and welcomed into a booth space or they won’t spend much time there. Space to talk, without feeling crowded, encourages customers to linger and browse. The entire booth should be bright and inviting.”
If the product or business has a logo or name, use it on all signs and promotional materials. Make posters big, since there is often only a moment or two to catch the attention of a passing customer.
– Alberta Agriculture
Forage from saline soil
Dryland salinity is a serious concern in many areas of the Prairies.
Reclaiming these degraded soils by seeding salt-tolerant crops, particularly forages, is a recommended practice.
Concentrations of major and trace elements in forages grown on saline soils often differ considerably from the normal range.
These forages might be inadequate to meet the nutritive needs of cattle and might limit their production or be so high in minerals as to have adverse health effects.
Although the chemical composition of forages and feed grains have been determined in western Canada, few studies have examined the composition of plants grown in saline areas, particularly in regard to the mineral requirements of beef cattle.
Scientists at Agriculture Canada’s Lethbridge research centre sampled plants from 102 salt-affected sites in southern and central Alberta during the summers of 1990 to 1993.
At 94 percent of the sites, zinc concentrations were below the minimum requirement for beef cattle. Deficiencies were also found in copper (92 percent of sites), selenium (87 percent), sodium (49 percent), manganese (29 percent), potassium (21 percent), magnesium (three percent), iron (one percent) and sulfur (one percent).
Elements most frequently exceeding maximum tolerable levels for beef cattle were sulfur (20 percent of sites), magnesium (17 percent), aluminum (five percent) iron (five percent) and molybdenum (one percent).
If cattle are fed mostly hay from saline areas, consideration should be given to supplementing their mineral diet . Producers using a lot of feed from saline areas should have it analyzed.
– Agriculture Canada
