Know the risks
Tinder-dry conditions this spring might have residents of southwestern Saskatchewan a little more on edge than usual. It’s been seven months since the Oct. 17 wildfires that the province’s fire commissioner has described as catastrophic. The area is typically dry, but after a summer with below normal rainfall, it was drier than usual. That evening, […] Read moreTag Archives Special Report
A land heals after devastating fire
As the dust devils dance in southeastern Alberta, farmers in the Hilda, Schuler and Acadia Valley areas plant seeds and hope for quick germination and roots that will cling to the soil. They’re planting into land ravaged by an October prairie wildfire that burned more than 25,500 cultivated acres in Alberta and Saskatchewan. Amid flames […] Read more
Army base improves communications after fire
AFTERMATH CFB Suffield was blamed for a fire in Alberta last September that killed 120 cattle and scorched thousands of acres
Tempers were almost as hot as fire last year when residents from the Bindloss, Alta., area met to discuss a Sept. 11-12 prairie fire that spread from Canadian Forces Base Suffield. The blaze burned down one rancher’s home, killed about 120 cattle, burned winter feed supplies and scorched thousands of acres of native grassland and […] Read more
Fires continue to take toll on injured farmers
The scars of Oct. 17, 2017, won’t soon fade for those caught in prairie wildfires that night. The Hargrave family lost 35-year-old James, a rancher and volunteer firefighter with the Walsh, Alta., department, in an accident during the fire near Hilda, Alta. Father and son, Ron and Evan Wedrick of Carmichael, Sask., were severely injured […] Read more
Getting on board
When Allison Ammeter discusses the future of pulse crops with her fellow board members, she doesn’t feel like she’s giving the “woman’s point of view.” Instead, she says she’s asking questions that her male colleagues aren’t asking, and that’s a good thing. “The men ask certain types of questions and us women ask certain types […] Read more
After Brexit: how the United Kingdom is coping with a new trade landscape
When voters in the United Kingdom decided to sever a 40-year-old relationship with the European Union last year, few of them likely considered the potential consequences of punishing tariffs and the loss of free access to the European market of 500 million consumers. STONELEIGH PARK, U.K. — Voters in the United Kingdom may have decided […] Read more
Irish farmers worry about loss of U.K. market
DUBLIN, Ireland — Ireland and the United Kingdom may have had their differences over the years, but the two share a strong interdependent business alliance. Bound by cultural ties, proximity and a common language, the two are each other’s best and largest trading partners. As the U.K. prepares to withdraw from the European Union, that […] Read more
Uncertainty reigns in Scotland as Brexit looms
EDINBURGH, U.K. — British farmers need to start preparing for all contingencies once the United Kingdom gives up membership in the European Union. “If farmers stopped thinking about the politics of Brexit and started getting some business planning in place so that when the implications of Brexit actually do come to rest, their mindset is […] Read more
English producers prepare for breakup with European Union
STONELEIGH PARK, U.K. — When voters in the United Kingdom went to the polls in June to decide whether they wanted to stay in the European Union, many thought people would opt for the comfort of the status quo. “The expectation from everybody was that it would be close but that it would be remain,” […] Read more
The commodity supercycle: is a big drop coming?
Farmers might not know much about commodity supercycles. Some might not believe in them. But supercycles are real, and whether or not farmers believe in them, they believe in farmers, declares a convincing chorus of specialist economists. “It’s not just a regular business cycle,” said economist Bilge Erten of Northeastern University in Boston, in an […] Read more
