Round Rock Ranching has long employed rotational grazing and Sean McGrath says water infiltration on his ranch is noticeably higher than on other operations in the area.

Rotational grazing doesn’t make rain, but it helps to keep it, study finds

Five-year, project finds high-intensity grazing boosts water infiltration by up to 30 per cent

Reading Time: 3 minutes Rotational grazing isn’t just good for the soil — it turns out the practice results in a huge bump in soil water infiltration. “What we were finding for water infiltration was that AMP (adaptive multi-paddock) grazing was adding about 30 per cent more water infiltration into the soil,” said Timm Döbert, who was part of […] Read more

Alberta currently accounts for about 40 per cent of Canadian hemp production.

Alberta poised to become hemp-processing powerhouse

Two hemp processors aim to open $70-million production plants in 2024

Reading Time: 5 minutes Alberta farmers will be growing a lot more hemp when two new proposed processing facilities open their doors in 2024. One is a $72-million hemp oil-processing operation to be built in a yet-to-be-determined location in southern Alberta while the other is a rare bird in the hemp sector — a facility that will process hemp […] Read more


The number of wild pigs is increasing rapidly on the Prairies. And while Saskatchewan is most affected, they have been reported in two dozen Alberta municipalities.

Alarm bells are finally ringing as wild pig numbers soar

Spread of planet’s ‘worst invasive large mammal’ is prompting action — including a controversial bounty

Reading Time: 6 minutes There’s a growing realization that wild pigs are becoming a major threat to Prairie agriculture — but also concern that a new provincial bounty could worsen the problem. “Wild pigs are the worst invasive large mammal on the planet,” said Ryan Brook, a USask associate professor of animal sciences and the country’s leading expert on […] Read more

Canada’s cattle sector has been in “downsizing mode” for years and lately has been relying on imports for American cattle to keep packing plants busy, says analyst Anne Wasko.

Prices are rising, but optimism isn’t for battered cattle sector

Herd numbers have been shrinking for 16 years, and that’s something the sector can’t cope with forever

Reading Time: 5 minutes As producers busy themselves with spring calving, the Canadian cattle herd continues to shrink. “Cattle supplies are getting smaller. They have in Canada for many years, and now the United States is into its third year of liquidation as well,” said Anne Wasko, market analyst for Gateway Livestock Services who also ranches in Saskatchewan. On […] 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


Tillage radish is one of the species that Brady Valgardson uses in his cover crops.

Cover cropping program looks to encourage innovation 

The program is quite flexible, says head of the provincial agency administering funding

Reading Time: 2 minutes The feds are putting up $33 million to encourage Alberta farmers to adopt three practices that can lower greenhouse gas emissions: rotational grazing, 4R fertilizer practices, and cover cropping.  Alberta’s share of the $183-million On-Farm Climate Action Fund program is being administered by Results Driven Agriculture Research, the provincial research funding agency.  Although details are […] 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


Backers of the More Than Protein Ingredients’ fractionation plant say the facility will be on the cutting edge in creating new plant-based ingredients. Site work on the $100-million plant started last fall and this rendering shows what it will look like when it opens in 2023.

Bowden pulse-processing plant aims to be on the cutting edge

Among its goals is to get rid of the aftertaste of pulses and find ways to up protein levels

Reading Time: 2 minutes A consortium of companies behind the province’s first major pulse fractionation plant are vowing to “take plant-based protein extraction to the next level” at the new facility being built in Bowden. And part of that is making pulse ingredients that don’t taste like pulses. “Our emphasis is on processing functionality,” said Kevin McGeough, CEO of […] Read more

AFSC used this photo when tweeting on social media about its rate announcement for this year. The ominous look mirrors the financial news — premiums up 37 per cent or more, and its once-vaunted reserve fund slashed by $2 billion.

Premiums soar after crop insurer hit by $2.7-billion loss

Higher crop prices are driving a big part of the 37 per cent (or higher) hike, but drought hit hard, too

Reading Time: 4 minutes The cost of annual crop insurance is soaring by an average of more than 37 per cent this year — and many farmers could be facing an even higher bill. “An average 1,500-acre Alberta farm growing a mixture of crops will see increased premium costs of approximately 54 per cent for annual insurance and hail […] Read more