Reading Time: 2 minutes Worries about China’s ban and other market woes have taken a back seat to weather issues for the province’s canola growers. The biggest challenge for many is getting the crop off before snow permanently covers their fields, said Alberta Canola general manager Ward Toma. “They can handle snow coming and going, but snow setting in […] Read more
Demand is good for canola — if you can get it off the field
China still isn’t buying but crushers are, and there are seed export opportunities, too
Airdrie company employs hemp to go green
Just BioFiber’s modular construction blocks look like oversized Lego — but they’re made from hemp
Reading Time: 4 minutes [UPDATED: Nov. 5, 2019] The legalization of marijuana has — oddly enough — been good for business for one Alberta producer of construction materials. That’s because Airdrie-based Just BioFiber makes modular building blocks out of hemp fibre. Prior to pot’s legalization a year ago, people in the construction industry used to jokingly ask if their […] Read more
It came from outer space, but now resides near Camrose
Researchers are trying to find a chunk of an asteroid that likely landed in a farmer’s field near the town
Reading Time: 3 minutes It’s not every day that researchers come to your field to look for space rocks. But that’s what happened to Camrose producer Rod Ross, after a meteor flew across the sky towards his farm on the last evening in August. “We had a rock that was about 50 kilograms, that might have been about the […] Read more
Ducks Unlimited Canada goes all in to support cattle grazing
Conservation group wants public to know that cattle are key to saving grasslands
Reading Time: 2 minutes Even though they don’t walk like a duck or quack like one, the country’s leading duck organization is pretty fond of cows. “For years, the backbone of conservation in Western Canada has been our cattle-producing partners because of the need for them to have good grass and good water,” said Ducks Unlimited Canada’s Mickenzie Plemel-Stronks, […] Read more
Cool weather, price drop hits Alberta honey producers
A poor honey crop and low prices spell bad times for the province’s beekeepers
Reading Time: 4 minutes This summer’s cool weather didn’t just have a negative impact on grain crops — it meant honeybees weren’t flying. And that has some commercial beekeepers in the province facing a dire economic situation. Most producers have substantially lower honey yields this year, said Connie Phillips, executive director of the Alberta Beekeepers Commission. That was borne […] Read more
Southern Alberta short line is hauling in jobs and economic activity
Forty Mile Rail purchased a long-abandoned rail line in 2016 and got the trains moving again
Reading Time: 4 minutes A group in southern Alberta has taken back a section of a short line rail, and area communities are enjoying the dividends. “We started Forty Mile Rail back in 2016,” said Lorne Buis, a director of the 75-kilometre-long rail line that runs from Stirling to Foremost. Last month, the group received $4.2 million of federal […] Read more
Having just turned 50, Alberta Beef Producers looks to make changes
Changing the delegate structure and responding to the faux meat craze are two top priorities
Reading Time: 3 minutes It’s not a midlife crisis but having reached the age of 50, Alberta Beef Producers is considering some lifestyle changes. That includes reviewing the way that delegates are chosen, working more closely with both its national parent and its provincial sibling, and seizing “the opportunity” created by Beyond Meat, says ABP chair Charlie Christie. “Our […] Read more
Hutterite colony targeted by animal rights activists
Protesters weren’t part of an existing group and had no issue with the Jumbo Valley colony — other than it raises poultry
Reading Time: 6 minutes On Labour Day, members of the Jumbo Valley Hutterite Colony near Fort MacLeod opened their turkey barn to a scene that no farmer would want to see — their barn was filled with about three dozen animal rights activists. “They just showed up and walked right in,” said Frankie Hofer, manager of the colony’s poultry […] Read more
You can’t beat the view from these beehives
Flow Hives became an internet sensation and are now a fixture on a downtown Edmonton rooftop
Reading Time: 3 minutes Bees that have called the rooftop of one of MacEwan University’s buildings home since 2016 recently received a special visitor — the architect of their unusual hives. Australian Stuart Anderson, co-creator of the Flow Hive, dropped by the building in downtown Edmonton to see how the urban pollinators like his creation. Anderson and son Cedar […] Read more
Canadian cattle herd numbers continue their long decline
Alberta’s beef herd is down nearly a quarter from its peak, but slaughter numbers are actually up
Reading Time: 3 minutes The Canadian beef cattle herd has shrunk again and is now down nearly 30 per cent from the peak in 2005. As of July 1, there were 10.36 million head on beef operations, far below the 14.74 million head that were around 14 years ago, according to Statistics Canada’s latest survey. “I don’t think anybody […] Read more