Reading Time: 3 minutes Come spring, more than the grass will be rising — the national cattle levy is going up $1.50 per head on April 1. “The impetus for us was the national beef strategy,” said Rich Smith, executive director of Alberta Beef Producers. “The national beef strategy is a plan for us for the next five years […] Read more
National cattle checkoff on its way up this spring
The national levy used to fund marketing and research is going up by $1.50 — the first increase since 2002
ONE YEAR LATER: Carbon tax eating into bottom line
There’s no overall figure on what the carbon levy cost farmers, but producers say they are feeling the impact
Reading Time: 4 minutes It’s hard to put exact numbers on it — but Alberta’s carbon tax is taking its toll, say farmers. And that toll increased at the start of the year, when the carbon tax increased to $30 a tonne — a 50 per cent jump from the initial $20-a-tonne tax implemented a year ago. Read more: […] Read more
Peace Country farmers told the time to halt clubroot is now
Workshops are being held across the region to arm farmers with best practices for combating the devastating canola disease
Reading Time: 2 minutes Clubroot was found in the Peace last summer — and that’s prompted an all-out effort to mobilize the farm community to do everything possible to halt the spread of the disease. Officials from the ag research group SARDA and local municipalities along with ag fieldmen are hosting workshops at seven different locations so producers can […] Read more
There could be some gain from the bone-chilling pain
Record cold temperatures provide silver lining by killing off bertha army worms and alfalfa weevils
Reading Time: 2 minutes Last month’s cold weather snap could pay some dividends for crop producers. “It could be good news. The bad news is that we got snow at the beginning of it, so snow tends to insulate,” said Scott Meers, insect pest management specialist with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry. The deep freeze gripped the entire province, with […] Read more
Forage research programs boosted by new hires
Peace Region scientist Nitya Khanal says there’s lots of catching up to do, but there are big payoffs for producers
Reading Time: 3 minutes After many years of decline, forage research is on the upswing. And that will produce a payoff for livestock producers, said forage researcher Nitya Khanal, who was hired in 2015 at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s research station in Beaverlodge. “As of last year, we are revising this program and we are looking forward to recovering […] Read more
Meat tax unlikely but alternatives gaining ground
Consumers are being offered more plant-based proteins and adding more of them to their diets, says expert
Reading Time: 3 minutes A tax on meat was the story d’jour at the start of the new year, and although the prospects of such a tax seem slim, the livestock industry risks losing market share to plant-based products, says an expert. The call for a tax came from Jeremy Coller, founder of one of the world’s largest private […] Read more
There’s a new look to Alberta Beef’s 2018 board of directors
There are five women, including the vice-chair and finance chair, on this year’s board and a quarter of the directors are under age 40
Reading Time: 3 minutes One look at a photo of the new board of Alberta Beef Producers tells you something very different is happening at the province’s largest livestock organization. Five of the 17 directors on the 2018 board are women and a quarter are under age 40. Both are welcomed by new ABP chair Charlie Christie, a cow-calf […] Read more
The good, the dry and the troubling
Year in Review: Mother Nature threw a curveball and so did governments, while the beef sector reached some major milestones
Reading Time: 9 minutes In one sense, the story of 2017 was all about what happened on your farm, mostly about how much rain you got and when — or if — it came. But it was also a year when things that happened in meeting rooms you’ve never visited had a big impact on your operation. If those […] Read more
Crop Insurance: Hail claims dipped sharply but unharvested acres soared
The number of unseeded acres rose eightfold but the provincial crop insurer paid out less than half the usual amount of hail claims
Reading Time: 2 minutes Dry conditions had one benefit this year — they helped contribute to a big drop in hail damage. “It was very dry in the south, with less activity in relation to hail. The central-south areas were more active this year,” said Daniel Graham, manager of business risk products with the Agricultural Financial Services Corporation (AFSC). […] Read more
Listen to your crops — the plants are talking to each other
They’re also ‘foraging’ for nutrients, deciding where to put their roots, and calling for help when under attack
Reading Time: 3 minutes You might think it’s crazy — but plants talk to each other and act in ways that are similar to animals and humans. “Step away from the idea of plants as factories and start to think of plants as individuals,” biological sciences professor JC Cahill told attendees at the Western Canadian Soil Health and Grazing […] Read moreCyber-Savvy Farmer
