Reading Time: 5 minutes Western Canada is on an “inevitable” march towards hot, dry summers and mild winters that will make southern Alberta feel like northern Texas, according to a new climate change mapping program. “One of the big, striking conclusions of the atlas is that, even if we reduce emissions, we still see substantial changes to our climate,” […] Read more
Southern Alberta could soon have Texas weather
Want to see the climate projections for your county? New online atlas predicts a sweltering future
Keep score when it comes to your soil health
The Visual Soil Assessment scorecard can help producers identify whether their soils are degrading
Reading Time: 2 minutes An upcoming Foothills Forage and Grazing workshop on June 24 will feature a soil health expert from Down Under talking about what’s going on down underground. “The workshop is an introduction to the role of soil health and microbiology in building forage quality and pasture quality,” said Nicole Masters, director of Integrity Soils in New Zealand. […] Read more
Food processing could be the next Alberta advantage
Despite hundreds of millions of investment, agri-food processing in Alberta is just ‘muddling along,’ says entrepreneur
Reading Time: 4 minutes One year after a call to build Alberta’s agri-food processing sector, not much has changed. “Everything has stalled,” said Jerry Bouma, co-founder of Toma & Bouma Management Consultants. “We have a new government and the formation of a new ministry. Any time you have a restructuring — both politically and bureaucratically — it takes awhile […] Read more
Is scrapping ALMA a mistake?
Reading Time: < 1 minute The dissolution of the Alberta Livestock and Meat Agency in last month’s provincial budget may be a step backward for Alberta’s agri-food processing industry. “I know ALMA was able to move fairly quickly in terms of responding to both opportunities and concerns and really apply resources in a very forthright fashion because of the way […] Read more
R-CALF’s USDA lawsuit takes aim at Canadian beef
Protectionist ranchers’ group says checkoffs promote ‘less safe and less wholesome’ imported beef
Reading Time: 3 minutes A group of cattle ranchers is suing the U.S. Department of Agriculture, claiming their checkoff dollars are being used to promote Canadian and other imported beef. The Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America — best known as R-CALF — also claims imported beef is “less safe and less wholesome.” But the lawsuit filed […] Read more
‘Baby’ those pastures in a drought year
Reading Time: 3 minutes Grazers hit hard by last year’s drought could be in for another difficult year. “Hopefully this is not setting up to be a 2002 year, but it certainly looks and feels like that,” said Ed Bork, a rangeland ecology and management researcher at the University of Alberta. “That can change in the matter of a […] Read more
Alberta farmers easing back the canola throttle this year
Production is forecast to drop by eight per cent – 500,000 acres – from last year
Reading Time: 3 minutes With the threat of another drought looming large in farmers’ minds, some Alberta canola acres could be lost to other crops in 2016. During its spring-seeding intentions survey, Alberta producers told StatsCan they intend to grow 5.6 million acres of canola in 2016 — a hefty eight per cent drop from last year’s 6.1 million […] Read more
Grasslands a carbon-capture colossus
Do the math: Take Alberta $15-per-tonne carbon tax and then look at how much carbon is stored in grasslands
Reading Time: 3 minutes If the Alberta government really wants to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the province, it should start with an incentive for farmers to reduce annual cropping, says a rangeland management expert. “There’s a pretty compelling case about why there should be a direct economic incentive for producers to maintain or even increase the amount of […] Read more
Stress a bison and someone will pay
Some call them athletic, others say ‘suicidal,’ but all agree that wild is the default mode for bison
Reading Time: 4 minutes Bison producer Ivan Smith doesn’t go anywhere without a butcher knife and a rifle in his truck. “Anything can go wrong when you’re dealing with an animal that’s this athletic,” said Smith, who operates Big Bend Bison Ranch near Innisfail. “It’s just the nature of the bison. They’re not meant to be captive, so when […] Read more
Wet-dry cycle drives up salinity and cuts yields
Invisible soil salinity affects 22 million acres on the Prairies, cutting yields by a quarter
Reading Time: 3 minutes Another dry spring could leave producers feeling salty over increased salinity in their soil. “This year and part of last year, we’ve started to see more salinity showing up,” said Jack Payne, western Prairies regional agronomist with Farmers Edge. “Saline seeps tend to form more readily after we’ve had a series of wet years followed […] Read more
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