Reading Time: 3 minutes James Thiessen has been growing hemp for eight years, but this past year he did something different — gave part of his harvest away. The organic hemp grower from La Crete was approached by Hemp Production Services to join the Two Acre Challenge and was happy to participate. “I like it because Hemp Production Services […] Read more
Hemp growers making a big difference half a world away
Officials continue all-out effort to prevent spread of PED
Authorities say it’s ‘good news’ that the devastating disease hasn’t spread, but don’t know how it got here
Reading Time: 3 minutes Contain and pray it doesn’t spread. That sums up the approach officials are taking following the arrival of porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) in the province. So far, tests for the PED virus at other farms, assembly yards, abattoirs, and truck washes have come back negative. However, officials also don’t know how the virus made its […] Read more
Building immunity to combat PED
There is no vaccine for the deadly virus, so controlled exposure is used to create immunity
Reading Time: < 1 minute Deliberately exposing a sow herd to the virus that causes porcine epidemic diarrhea may seem counterintuitive, but it’s the best option when a facility is infected. “The game plan is that you need to expose the sow population as quickly as possible, whenever the outbreak has occurred in the barn,” said Frank Marshall, owner of […] Read more
Antimicrobial resistance: No smoking gun, study finds
Study finds no link between antimicrobial use in livestock and antibiotic-resistant bacteria in humans
Reading Time: 4 minutes Researchers say they’ve tried very hard to find a link between antibiotic-resistant bacteria in cattle and humans — but despite all their efforts, were unable to do it. “We did a very comprehensive study where we studied enterococci in cattle, in waste water treatment plants, in catch basins and surrounding fields, and also collected isolates […] Read more
In the end, the conversation always turns to quality
Whether they make pasta or couscous, blend it or mill it straight, buyers associated Canada with quality wheat
Reading Time: 4 minutes Quality counts, whether in developing markets or established ones. That was a key takeaway for two Prairie farmers who participated in New Crops Missions prior to Christmas. “I was surprised in Ghana that two of the millers were using 100 per cent Canadian wheat,” said Kevin Bender, outgoing Alberta Wheat chair and a Cereals Canada […] Read more
Working together is the recipe for creating a great community
Reading Time: 4 minutes Trying to ensure that your rural community survives is an actual skill. It takes work to prevent a great little town out in the sticks from turning into a ghost town. “It’s really about the people and how optimistic and enthusiastic they are and how well they work together,” said Dee Ann Benard, executive director […] Read more
No ordinary herbicide — glyphosate keeps making headlines
The world’s most widely used herbicide will continue to be one of agriculture’s biggest newsmakers
Reading Time: 4 minutes Two things happened to glyphosate over the past 15 years — it got a lot more popular and a lot more unpopular at the same time. There’s no question that most farmers love it. Although the most recent estimates are a few years old, farm use of glyphosate soared in this century. A major European […] Read more
Herd numbers tell a tale of hard times and a slow recovery
After ‘an interesting 15 years,’ there are signs that things are finally getting back to normal, says analyst
Reading Time: 4 minutes When this paper came into existence, the province’s cattle herd was growing by leaps and bounds. But that wasn’t good news — it was because the discovery of a single cow with BSE in May 2003 had caused the border to slam shut, reducing the opportunities to market cattle. “Nationally, when we started out that […] Read more
As the gap widens, farmers urged to reach out to consumers
The ag sector is better at both documenting its stewardship and communicating — but more is needed
Reading Time: 6 minutes Ever noticed you don’t hear the phrase ‘rural-urban gap’ as much these days? A decade and a half ago, farmers and ranchers — realizing most Canadians were, at best, a couple of generations removed from farming — were reaching out to urbanites at events such as the Calgary Stampede or through programs such as Ag […] Read more
Finding a cause for lameness in sheep
Little research on sheep lameness has been done in Canada, but the incidence can be high
Reading Time: 2 minutes Not a lot of work had been done to figure out why sheep go lame, but some Alberta researchers are working to change this. “We would like to develop a strategy to diagnose lame sheep which can later be used to inform best management practices to treat these animals,” said Wiolene Montanari Nordi, at the […] Read more