Reading Time: 5 minutes Note: Her passion for red wigglers is legendary. To date her love letter to vermiculture has sold over 200,000 copies. She was, the Worm Woman from Kalamazoo. Mary Appelhof, a Michigan high school science teacher, is now considered the mother of vermiculture. An environmentalist who saw earthworms as a way to recycle food waste, Appelhof […] Read more
Edmonton company worming its way into plant food and ag markets
Vermicomposting: The worms turn waste into an increasingly sought-after soil supplement
New campaign will stand up for lowly ditches and hidden rights-of-way
These little-noticed strips of land provide wildlife habitat along with several environmental benefits
Reading Time: 2 minutes A ditch may not look like much — but for many game birds it’s a little strip of paradise in an otherwise hostile world. However, producers often decide to farm ditches and rights-of-way — a practice known as ‘trespass farming.’ But a conservation group called Pheasants Forever Calgary is hoping to change attitudes about this […] Read more
New vet school dean brings a lot of expertise — and an entourage
Reading Time: 4 minutes The new dean of the University of Calgary’s vet school arrived with a lot of new ideas — and two dogs, an Icelandic horse, a donkey, a pony, four children and one husband. “They are family members,” Renate Weller said of the four-legged emigrés. “We have had the donkey and his two companion ponies for […] Read more
Land Prices: Interest still high, pocketbooks thinner
Scarce listings get a lot of looks, but drought may curb price rises
Reading Time: 4 minutes The hot weather this summer may cool the price rise for Alberta farmland this winter — but there are still plenty of farmers looking to add acres, say experts. Prior to the drought, the increase in land prices was typical for the first half of the year, said Kuuri Carlson, an appraiser with Farm Credit […] Read more
Could soil electrical conductivity maps give productivity a little jolt?
This easy-to-obtain data could be a way to use fertilizer and irrigation more effectively
Reading Time: 4 minutes You might get a charge out of this — measuring the ability of soil to conduct electricity, turning that info into field maps of moisture, and then using that info to fertilize or irrigate more effectively. Soil electrical conductivity is something that may already be measured on your farm. “Often if farmers are getting their […] Read more
They can be troublemakers, but beavers do a lot of good, too
There are low-cost ways to prevent the busy dam builders from causing flooding and other damage
Reading Time: 3 minutes Beavers have been given a bad rap, but they can benefit the landscape — and there are ways of coexisting with them. “People are beginning to recognize the value of beaver and how they might be able to help us as a society navigate some of the challenges we are facing,” riparian specialist Kerri O’Shaughnessy […] Read more
Research leader’s passion for soil health proves infectious
Reading Time: 4 minutes Nora Paulovich developed a passion for soil health during her years leading the North Peace Applied Research Association. Her legacy is that so many other Alberta farmers now share her belief that building soil health needs to be Job 1 on their farms. Cover crops, integrating livestock into crop production, and regenerative agriculture were among […] Read more
Using a conservation assessment as a springboard
Program offers a check on wildlife and ranch health, and works with ranchers to make improvements
Reading Time: 4 minutes Sometimes, you don’t know what you’ve got until you have a wildlife habitat assessment done. That was the case for Melissa and Murray Downing, who were among the first to participate in a relatively new initiative by the Alberta Conservation Association. “We learned a lot about the different species that exist here,” said Melissa who […] Read more
Sustainable beef has made big gains, but there’s more to do
Beef industry now needs to achieve ambitious targets to combat climate change, says expert
Reading Time: 3 minutes Canada’s beef sector is a model when it comes to sustainability but the entire industry has more to do in the face of a changing climate, says an expert in global beef supply chains. “Our needs today are changing rapidly — with the widespread droughts in some places and flooding in others,” Tim Hardman of […] Read more
In times of crisis, putting the farm first can be a big mistake
Neglecting your mental health during times of high stress is not the way to treat your farm’s top asset
Reading Time: 2 minutes Farming is stressful at the best of times, and with drought piled on top of a pandemic, the farm community is currently experiencing “really high rates of chronic stress,” says an expert. And it’s actually made worse by the strong work ethic of producers when times get tough, said Cynthia Beck, a crop and cattle […] Read more
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