Reading Time: 5 minutes Planning for Profits Working on your farm management skills is like exercising — it pays big benefits, but it’s easy to push it off for another day. Only one-third of producers use business advisers or risk management tools, and fewer still do HR, succession, or strategic planning. To help make your farm more profitable (and […] Read more
Start succession planning with a conversation — and then keep talking
Trent Clark has heard many succession ‘horror stories’ and is making sure that everyone in his family is on the same page
Alberta dairy producers concerned but calm over threats, says farm leader
Alberta Milk takes attacks from U.S. president seriously but its members aren’t panicking, says group’s chair
Reading Time: 2 minutes Alberta dairy producers take President Donald Trump’s threats against Canadian dairy seriously, but they aren’t in a panic, says the chair of Alberta Milk. “I think we need to take this threat seriously because what we’re seeing from the U.S. administration is an administration that is unpredictable,” said Tom Kootstra, who farms near Ponoka. The […] Read more
UNHARVESTED ACRES: Farmers scrambling to avert a second wreck
If your crop is a writeoff you need an insurance assessment — but you need to get out on the land to get a sample first
Reading Time: 3 minutes Time is running out for producers trying to deal with unharvested — and unsalvageable — acres. And the situation could become a train wreck for many of them if the province’s crop insurer can’t speed up its assessments, say farm groups. “Within certain regions, I would say that dire is an apt description because there […] Read more
New board put in charge of province’s scandal-plagued crop insurer
Many well-known faces in the ag community are on the new board of the Agricultural Financial Services Corporation
Reading Time: 2 minutes Ten months after dismissing the board of directors of the Agricultural Financial Services Corporation, Agriculture Minister Oneil Carlier has finally named its replacements. And the board’s first action will be to find a new chief executive officer to replace one who was suspended with pay last June after the provincial auditor found a host of […] Read more
Hog producers learning how to get the most out of group housing
Animal welfare concerns about gestation stalls have driven the move to group housing, but researcher says productivity doesn’t have to suffer
Reading Time: 2 minutes While the adoption of group sow housing was driven by consumers, the pork sector isn’t skipping a beat when it comes to making it work. “Through science, we have been able to show that you can achieve comparable, if not better, productivity through the group housing setting,” swine behaviour and welfare scientist Yolande Seddon told […] Read more
Stampede is a champion of animal welfare, says researcher
The Calgary rodeo is a leader in giving access to researchers, and they haven’t found high levels of animal stress or abuse
Reading Time: 3 minutes Animal activists are quick to denounce the Calgary Stampede for animal cruelty. But it turns out very little research has been done on animal welfare at rodeo events. “As a scientist, I can say that there is no data on rodeo and how animals are being treated. That’s where some of the research we’ve been […] Read more
Don’t write off animal welfare advocates as vegans and ‘crazies,’ says expert
Most consumers now believe animals have rights and livestock producers have to respond to their views, says bioethicist
Reading Time: 3 minutes The growing emphasis on animal welfare and animal rights is part of a societal shift, and the livestock sector needs to embrace it. That’s the view of a philosopher who is also a professor of biomedical sciences and animal sciences at Colorado State University and author of several books on animal rights. “Too many people […] Read more
The next big thing? Pioneers of CTF have high hopes
Controlled traffic farming may be the biggest advance since no till, but even its fans don’t expect it to be an overnight success
Reading Time: 5 minutes Controlled traffic farming has many benefits, but it still hasn’t caught on big in Alberta. There are only a handful of farmers in the province who have adopted the practice and a recent conference drew just over 50 people — even though CTF, as it’s commonly called, is hailed by some as the biggest advance […] Read more
The battle against TB is a ‘painful journey’ but worth the effort
There are several ways to improve bovine security, even in areas where wildlife may harbour the disease
Reading Time: 4 minutes The measures used to battle bovine tuberculosis are tough, but well worth it, says one of the vets in the line of defence. “Most of our focus is that it is a reportable disease and TB-free status is jealously guarded as a trade advantage to Canada,” Allan Preston, Manitoba’s bovine TB co-ordinator, said during a […] Read more
The lowdown on bovine tuberculosis
Caused by a sneaky ‘bacterial ninja,’ bovine TB is a disease with few symptoms, but important consequences
Reading Time: 3 minutes Despite the ongoing bovine tuberculosis situation in southeastern Alberta, many producers may not know some basic facts about the disease. “Bovine TB is caused by bacteria. Many types of mycobacteria exist, and many types of mycobacteria bovis exist,” Karin Schmid, beef production specialist with Alberta Beef Producers, said during a recent Beef Cattle Research Council […] Read more
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