Reading Time: 3 minutes Of all the weeds beef producers should focus on, Canada thistle is high on the list. Livestock avoid the prickly plant and it’s said to cost Canadian ag and forestry $7.5 billion in lost revenue annually. Fall control on pasture might be one of the most effective tools in stopping growth of the noxious weed, […] Read more
The time to attack Canada thistle is now (or soon)
A herbicide application after a hard frost can hit the noxious weed where it lives
Alberta women have big plans for $10K windfall
Credit unions give a boost to women in ag
Reading Time: 5 minutes Two Alberta women are $10,000 richer thanks to a first-ever grant awarded by the province’s credit unions. Lynn Dargis of Bonnyville and Laurel Thompson of Vermilion were winners of the Women in Ag grant awarded by the Credit Unions of Alberta and ConnectFirst Credit Union. Stepped up Farming has always been in Lynn Dargis’ blood. […] Read more
The guiding light of beef research
BCRC celebrates 25 years of funding beef research that the government wouldn’t
Reading Time: 5 minutes Many beef producers might remember a time, say 25 years ago, that a 900-pound steer would be considered finished. Today, there’s a good chance that same steer would be 50 pounds away from starting the finishing process. Craig Lehr remembers. And on the 25th anniversary of the largest not-for-profit, industry-led funding agency in Canadian beef […] Read more
OFCAF applications still on hold
Key program provider still battling with applications from early 2023
Reading Time: 3 minutes Those hoping to apply for a popular cost-share program in 2023 must play a waiting game. Results Driven Agriculture Research, one of three Alberta administrators of the On-Farm Climate Action Fund (OFCAF), put new applications on hold May 10. An early news release pegged Aug. 15 as a possible reopening date. A newer guess suggests […] Read more
Training fills the gaps between agriculture and technology
Program aims to match tech specialists with farmers and industry employers
Reading Time: 4 minutes Say there’s trouble with the automated GIS and mapping features on the tractor, but you can’t find a tech with enough knowledge to offer help. It’s a simple example of the kind of employment gaps that keep farmers up at night, and that prevent their adoption of new technology, said the manager of an “upskilling” […] Read more
Alberta First Nations tribe spins hay into gold
Kainai Forage sets a new record with a 40,000 tonne first cut and it has no plans of stopping there
Reading Time: 4 minutes Four years ago, Kainai Forage set out to increase its premium forage production fivefold by 2024. If its first cut is any indication, it could be on its way to that 100,000-tonne goal. The plant-to-processing company recently set a record-best first cut when it harvested more than 40,000 tonnes of export-destined timothy hay grown under […] Read more
Peace country resident turns tragedy into triumph with AEDs in schools
Project Brock has taught thousands of rural Albertans how to fight sudden cardiac arrest
Reading Time: 5 minutes [UPDATED: Aug. 24, 2023] Farmers and other rural residents face disadvantages when it comes to emergency services. Distance and logistics are two big factors, but they don’t end there. Just ask Kim Ruether. She lives on a farm near the Peace country town of Fairview and has made it a personal goal to get automated […] Read more
Mix up forages to fight soil salinity
Saline land improved by a number of grasses, say researchers at Ag in Motion
Reading Time: 2 minutes A mix of grasses can help address salinity problems on marginal farmland, says a forage expert. “The nice thing about a mix is you’re kind of guaranteed that something will catch,” said Dexter Lethbridge, a product line rep with Proven Seeds for Nutrien Ag Solutions in Lethbridge, Alta. Partnering with Ducks Unlimited, Proven/Nutrien set out […] Read more
Recovery funds available to beekeepers for 2022 disaster
However, outdated importation policies still place producers at risk, says sector leader
Reading Time: 5 minutes Alberta beekeepers devastated by colony losses are getting a hand up through a new funding agreement. Agriculture Financial Services Corp., through the AgriRecovery program, is compensating commercial beekeepers for “extraordinary costs” incurred during the winter of 2021-22, when extreme cold and a parasite outbreak ravaged the sector. Overall, beekeepers lost 50 per cent of their […] Read more
Lethbridge Exhibition goes big time with huge new facility
$80 million Agri-food Hub a platform for new ag opportunities, say developers
Reading Time: 3 minutes Lethbridge’s new, 268,000 square foot facility is more than just a place to hold popular agricultural events, say its developers. It’s a platform to show southern Alberta’s agriculture sector to the world and grow the local economy in the process. In that sense, the Agri-food Hub and Trade Centre, which opens to the public Aug. […] Read more
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