Reading Time: 6 minutes After two years of increasingly slow internet service, an eight-month wait for a new Starlink system to arrive seemed like no time at all for Shane Strydhorst. “Kind of like everything Elon Musk is associated with, they make big promises but maybe fail to deliver in a timely fashion. But they promised very high speeds, […] Read more
Blazingly fast broadband arrives — but only for some
Starlink can be a big upgrade for rural users but it’s pricey and not available to all
Field peas are the latest Alberta crop to be distilled into a spirit
Reading Time: 4 minutes If Alberta’s malt barley can be transformed into craft beer and its rye into premium whisky, why not field peas? That’s the question that Faaiza Ramji asked herself early in the pandemic as she explored ways to use more Alberta-grown crops in locally processed foods and drinks. “I was disappointed to learn that we grow […] Read more
Restoring marginal lands can be a long-term money-maker
New conservation program offers $125 per acre to seed unproductive annually cropped lands to forages
Reading Time: 4 minutes Alberta producers are finding a way to make their marginal lands pay, with a little help from Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC). “Not all parts of a field are created equal,” said Darwin Chambers, head of DUC’s conservation programs in Alberta. “There can be certain areas of a field — often low-lying areas — that just […] Read more
New calculator estimates the dollar value of Prairie wetlands
The USask tool aims to show that wetlands are worth far more to society than usually thought
Reading Time: 3 minutes A new online tool developed at the University of Saskatchewan will help both policy-makers and producers estimate the value of wetlands across the Prairies. “When we push for wetland conservation, sometimes the language that our leaders and policy-makers understand best is the dollar value,” said researcher Eric Asare, who led the project for the USask […] Read more
It’s been one crisis after another but better days are coming
After two very tough years, better days are on the way for cattle sector, says Bob Lowe
Reading Time: 4 minutes COVID. Drought. Border blockades. A feed crisis. Packing plant closures. As the man at the helm of Canada’s top cattle organization, Bob Lowe has had more fires to put out than any Canadian Cattlemen’s Association president in recent memory. And now that he’s finished his term as president, the Nanton-area rancher and feedlot operator is […] Read more
There’s a lesson in ‘buttergate’ for all farmers, says food writer
Julie Van Rosendaal’s tweet ignited a controversy but the issue shows ‘people are paying attention’
Reading Time: 5 minutes Julie Van Rosendaal spent a lot of time last year thinking about butter. And then she got a lot of people talking about it. Last February, the Calgary-based cook and food writer found herself wondering why butter she was using was firmer than expected at room temperature and harder to spread. “I started buying butter […] Read more
Rancher goes from ‘naive’ novice to Alberta’s Outstanding Young Farmer
Reading Time: 4 minutes Ten years ago, Alberta’s newest Outstanding Young Farmer wasn’t even a farmer. He was a lot of other things — an engineer; an environmentalist; a former vegetarian — but although he had family who ranched, Ben Campbell was never a farm kid, and never really thought he would be. But when he learned about the […] Read more
STRONG STEWARDS: Women ‘a driving force’ in conservation efforts
Stewardship isn’t gender specific but female farmers are often champions of sustainable practices
Reading Time: 5 minutes Elaine Bellamy has known from the time she was a small girl — there’s something special about the land at Will Farms. “When I was a five-year-old girl, I decided to take a spoon outside and have a taste of the dirt,” the Rosebud-area farmer recalled with a laugh. “Apparently, I thought it was pretty good, […] Read more
Female farmers lead regenerative farming efforts globally
Most small-scale farmers are women, and they focus on healthy soil, water, and ecosystems, says author
Reading Time: 2 minutes [UPDATED: April 5, 2022] Many female farmers here are champions of sustainable farming, but their global counterparts have long been feeding the world using these management practices. “From my work as a writer, I’d argue that women farmers were already prioritizing sustainable agriculture practices long before this recent shift towards ‘regenerative agriculture,’” said Trina Moyles, […] Read more
Land prices set a sizzling pace as buyers outnumber sellers
Alberta saw a much smaller price rise on average, but it depends where you farm
Reading Time: 4 minutes The drought didn’t put a damper on land prices. The average price for farmland across the country shot up 8.3 per cent last year, according to the latest price survey by Farm Credit Canada. That’s up nearly three per cent from the 5.4 per cent rise seen in 2020. “I’m not surprised that farmland values […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
