Reading Time: < 1 minute Keep it Clean is putting on a webinar to offer grain and oilseed growers “timely pre-harvest tips and tools to protect the marketability of Canada’s canola, cereal and pulse crops.” The Aug. 3 event (at 10 a.m. Alberta time) will cover topics such as proper staging for pre-harvest glyphosate application, the importance of following pre-harvest […] Read more

Pre-harvest primer on tap

Beef pricing to be reviewed
Reading Time: < 1 minute Alberta Beef Producers, the Alberta Cattle Feeders’ Association, and the Canadian Cattle Association are undertaking “an Alberta beef competitiveness study.” The groups say the study “will seek to understand the apparent lack of packing capacity.” It will focus on three areas: barriers to entry and expansion for the packing sector; confidentiality concerns in regard to […] Read more

Alberta Beef Producers get funding for ‘living labs’ project
Government says real-world testing of stewardship practices will benefit the environment and farmers
Reading Time: 4 minutes Ottawa is putting $54-million into ‘living labs’ initiatives in six provinces, including $8.5 million in a project that will be led by Alberta Beef Producers. “Each living lab will focus on identifying innovative technologies and on-farm management practices that can be adopted by farmers nationwide to tackle climate change,” the government said in a release. […] Read more

On paper, farmers are richer than last year
Reading Time: < 1 minute The value of farm assets rose 10 per cent last year and now tops $627 billion, says Statistics Canada. Most of the farm equity is in land and its collective value reached $577 billion, up 11 per cent, but the growth in wealth was not evenly distributed. Farm equity in Ontario was up nearly 20 […] Read more

Cereal groups merger heads to a vote
Reading Time: < 1 minute Alberta wheat and barley farmers will vote on a proposed merger of the two crop commissions this fall. “Farmers can expect plebiscite information to come to their mailbox this fall, although voting in the plebiscites will be conducted online,” an article in the most recent Grain Exchange newsletter states. Provincial rules require separate plebiscites for […] Read more

Ectoparasite help available for cattle
Reading Time: < 1 minute It’s getting to be peak season for ectoparasites and the Beef Cattle Research Council (BCRC) has a number of resources that can help. Ectoparasite is just a $10 word for lice, flies, ticks and other external parasites. The research council’s web resource zeros in on lice (both the sucking and chewing varieties with four species […] Read more

Cash advance change could put $5,000 in your pocket
Government is raising the interest-free portion to $250,000, saving farmers an estimated $61 million
Reading Time: 2 minutes Canadian farmers with cash advances will save $61 million in interest charges over the next two years after Ottawa boosted the interest-free portion of the Advance Payments Program. Producers can borrow up to $1 million against the expected value of their commodities in a program year, with the first $100,000 interest-free and the rest at […] Read more
Alberta Canola director spots filled
Reading Time: < 1 minute Christine McKee of Stirling, and Alan Hampton of Rowley have been appointed as Alberta Canola directors. McKee replaces Kevin Serfas in Region 9 while Hampton replaces Holly White in Region 12. No candidates in either region put their name forward during elections last fall and neither did anyone at the organization’s annual general meeting. Appointing […] Read more
A big swing in Alberta’s crop outlook
Reading Time: < 1 minute The end-of-June crop report was easily the most uplifting one in a year, both on the crop development front and on soil moisture levels. “This week, 75 per cent of all crops in the province are rated in good or excellent condition, only marginally behind both the five-year and 10-year averages,” says the June 27 […] Read more

La Niña wants to stick around
Reading Time: < 1 minute There’s “a high probability” that La Niña will last until August and possibly until the start of next winter (or later), says the World Meteorological Organization. If so, it would be the third “triple-dip La Niña” — three consecutive winters of La Niña conditions in the Northern Hemisphere — since 1950, the agency said. The […] Read more