Four farm groups join Team Alberta

Four farm groups join Team Alberta

Reading Time: < 1 minute Four farm groups have joined the province’s big crop commissions under the Team Alberta umbrella. Alberta Sugar Beet Growers, Potato Growers of Alberta, Alberta Seed Growers and the Alberta Beekeepers have joined the four founding members, the wheat, barley, canola and pulse commissions. The idea behind the 2015 creation of Team Alberta is “that working […] Read more


Alberta farmers Brady Valgardson (left) and Andy Kirschenman (right) have been experimenting with cover crops for years. And while both agree they bring benefits, they also say it’s still very much early days in knowing how to use cover crops in Alberta.

Are cover crops a fit for Alberta conditions?

There are producers making it work here but they warn it’s not easy and comes with lots of unknowns

Reading Time: 5 minutes A decade ago, Brady Valgardson knew he had to do something about wind erosion on his farm. Cover cropping was the solution.  “As we started doing that, I just read more and more about the benefits to the soil from those same cover crops, how they can hold on to your nutrients and improve water filtration,” […] Read more

A handful of trouble: These are four different species of wireworms and all were found in a single field in southern Alberta.

This hidden crop menace is stealthy, destructive and a devil to get rid of

There’s a wide variety of wireworms, their impact varies greatly, and there’s no effective control

Reading Time: 4 minutes Joe Ripley knew something was up in his wheat field — but he had no idea what. “We just had patches where it was very poor quality and there was hardly anything there,” said the grain and cattle producer from the Spring Coulee area in southern Alberta. “We didn’t realize what it was for a […] Read more


File photo of a P.E.I. potato field against the backdrop of the Confederation Bridge. (Onepony/iStock/Getty Images)

P.E.I. table stock potato exports to U.S. now allowed

New U.S. order replaces previous requirements; seed potatoes still blocked

Exports of Prince Edward Island table stock potatoes are again officially allowed to enter the mainland United States, after new U.S. entry rules regarding potato wart were published Friday. Canada’s federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said on Twitter that officials with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) are now preparing to certify exports of eligible […] Read more

Federal Conservative ag critic and Alberta MP John Barlow speaks with P.E.I. potato grower Alex Docherty (r) in a March 18, 2022 photo. (John Barlow photo via Facebook)

Mainland U.S. moving to resume P.E.I. potato imports

P.E.I. growers get 'certainty' for spring planting, Bibeau says

Exports of fresh potatoes from Prince Edward Island to the mainland U.S. are expected to resume “soon” as U.S. officials move to put new rules in place for such shipments. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) said Thursday that Canada “is expected to soon resume exporting (P.E.I.) table stock […] Read more


(Lightguard/iStock/Getty Images)

Saskatchewan pushes crop insurance deadline to mid-April

'Logistical challenges' led to extension

Saskatchewan farmers will get an extra couple of weeks to apply for, cancel, reinstate or change their crop insurance contracts for 2022, due to holdups in the delivery of their application packages. That deadline, originally March 31, has now been extended to April 14, provincial Ag Minister David Marit and his federal counterpart Marie-Claude Bibeau […] Read more

File photo of a P.E.I. potato field against the backdrop of the Confederation Bridge. (Onepony/iStock/Getty Images)

P.E.I. testing finds potato wart in another field

Testing stemmed from last October's detection

Soil samples taken on Prince Edward Island following detections of potato wart last fall have turned up another field with the fungus that causes the disease. The P.E.I. Potato Board on Tuesday said the field in question is near to, and is “directly associated” with, a field where the soil-borne disease was found in October. […] Read more


Greenleaf Foods, a subsidiary of meat processor Maple Leaf Foods, last month began providing its plant-based Lightlife Chick’n Tenders to convenience chain 7-Eleven in Canada. (Dave Bedard photo)

ADM releases alternative protein outlook for 2022

MarketsFarm — Major U.S. agribusiness ADM released a report Tuesday identifying the seven biggest trends in the alternative protein market, ranging from creating new protein sources from fungi to making plant-based meat substitutes more affordable and palatable to the general public. The seven trends in the report were: introduction of novel protein sources, using microbial […] Read more

File photo of a Prince Edward Island potato field. (Onepony/iStock/Getty Images)

P.E.I. potato exports cleared for Puerto Rico

U.S. territory has no commercial potato production

A U.S. territory with an appetite for Canadian potatoes and no commercial potato production to speak of will be able to resume imports of table stock potatoes from Prince Edward Island starting Wednesday. The resumption of exports to Puerto Rico, announced Tuesday, is a spot of good news for the province’s potato sector. Export certificates […] Read more