The stretch of Highway 3 between Medicine Hat and Taber, Alta., has increasingly become a safety issue as personal and commercial traffic often competes with combines, sprayers, cattle liners and trucks servicing processors, feedlots, greenhouses and potato and sugar beet operations.  |  Alex McCuaig photo

Alberta’s Highway 3 twinning project delayed

The road, also known as the Crowsnest Highway, is often billed as one of Canada’s most significant agri-food corridors

The pledge to twin a portion of Alberta’s Highway 3 between Taber and Burdett starting this year was made with plenty of fanfare by two Alberta premiers over the past three years. However, that commitment, part of a more than decade-old push to twin the stretch of highway between Medicine Hat and Lethbridge, has quietly […] Read more

Pivot irrigation is shown watering a field of peas.

Water crisis deepens for southern Alta. irrigators

Liner repairs to the Lethbridge Northern Irrigation District’s canal system continue, but shortage becoming desperate

The situation for those using water supplied by the Lethbridge Northern Irrigation District in southern Alberta is becoming desperate. The latest information from LNID does not bode well for irrigation farmers, as emergency repairs continue on a liner that feeds the canal system. It runs from west of Fort Macleod to east of Picture Butte. […] Read more

An irrigation canal in Alberta.

Alberta irrigation springs a leak

The canals of the Lethbridge Northern Irrigation District would usually run full bore during a spring that has seen persistent dry conditions permeate the southern half of the province. But it’s only been able to provide a trickle of what’s needed this year, following a major leak in its canal system.



An oilfield pumpjack sits on a gravel pad in the midst of a ripe wheat field with a combine passing by in the background.

Oil, gas love affair may threaten ag

Alberta producers’ enthusiasm for political parties that support an oil and gas industry seems misplaced when unrestrained CO2 emissions could devastate the agri-food business before the end of the century.

An RCMP officer leans on a gate while two horses are nearby in a pasture, there is considerable smoke in the air.

Wildfire preparation requires thorough evacuation plan

Producers need to know ahead of time how and where they will move their livestock if a dangerous situation occurs


From the moment an individual decides to have livestock on their land Mikki Shatosky, emergency management co-ordinator for the Animal Health Emergency Management (AHEM) organization, said they must start thinking about how to deal with emergencies, whether it's weather or disease related.



An oil well pumpjack at work in a field in Alberta.

Oil and gas issues are no-shows on Alberta election radar

Landowners continue to worry about abandoned wells, but the topic has barely been addressed during the campaign

Millions of outstanding tax payments have been written off by rural municipalities with hundreds of millions owing. Landowners have seen surface lease payments unilaterally diminished and, in many cases, not paid at all.


A woman uses a snake hook to carefully turn over a rock that may have snakes beneath it while school kids look on.

Loss of habitat threatens snake population

Those working to preserve the region’s snakes say human development is the biggest threat, but this can be managed

Sherri Monk, owner of Snakes on the Plains, said human development is the biggest threat to Alberta’s snake population.



An older man leans on metal corral panels looking into the empty pen.

Farm couple insists on staying put

Vic and Winnie Rowley are in their mid- and late 80s; they want to stay on their central Alberta farm as long as they can

CLIVE, Alta. — At 88 and 86 years old, Vic and Winnie Rowley have no intention of retiring and moving off the farm. “I like to go to town in the morning for coffee and that’s it,” said Vic, from his farm north of Clive, Alta. “I don’t think I’d like living in town. It […] Read more