Reading Time: < 1 minute That question might have come to mind for travellers on this back road south of Pincher Creek over the chilly Christmas period. And it is a question we all wonder about as the new year gets underway.
PHOTO: What lies ahead?
Group fighting resistant wild oat has new resources for producers
The threat is already serious and poised to get much worse without concerted management efforts
Reading Time: 2 minutes When it comes to herbicide-resistant wild oat, the odds favour the bad guy. “The last herbicide-resistance survey (Beckie et al. 2020) indicates that 69 per cent of wild oat fields have herbicide resistance,” Alberta Wheat agronomy research extension specialist Jeremy Boychyn noted in an article in May. “Additionally, 62 per cent of those fields are […] Read more
Seed quality appears to be better than expected despite heat, drought
Germination rates from fall tests by 20/20 Seed Labs were well above the 90 per cent rate
Reading Time: 2 minutes A “seed quality disaster” has been averted but supply is another story. “For most of the seeds that we tested this season, we expected to see some level of dormancy, but we haven’t seen much of that,” Moses Palmer of 20/20 Seed Labs wrote in an article on Alberta Seed Guide’s website last month. “Mostly, […] Read more
Bin pest survey on deck for southern Alberta
Reading Time: < 1 minute Producers in southern Alberta are being asked to take part in a grain bin pest survey next fall. The survey is being conducted by a team led by Vincent Hervet, a stored grain specialist with AgCanada in Winnipeg. Team members would visit a farm twice in September/October, first to set traps and then to remove […] Read more
Loblaw to increase sustainable beef buying
Reading Time: < 1 minute Loblaw is tripling its purchase of beef produced under sustainable beef protocols. One year after pledging to buy one million pounds of certified sustainable beef, the Canadian grocery giant now says it will buy three million pounds by 2023. To be certified, the cattle must be raised on farms and processed under protocols established by […] Read more
BeGrainSafe has a busy year despite pandemic
Reading Time: < 1 minute More than 450 firefighters took training this year on how to respond to grain entrapment. The 19 training sessions are part of the BeGrainSafe initiative run by the Canadian Agricultural Safety Association, which is supported by a host of farm groups and ag companies and associations, including Alberta Canola Producers and Alberta Wheat. “Even with […] Read more
When cows have a choice of chow, what tickles their palate?
Knowing forage preferences of free-range cattle could help boost productivity and influence breeding
Reading Time: 2 minutes The dietary preferences of free-range cattle are being studied like never before — and the findings could boost productivity, influence cattle breeding, and lighten the environmental footprint of herds. “This is pioneering work — no one has ever at this scale linked together the productivity and associated economics, genetics and environmental outcomes of free-range grazing,” […] Read more
Herbicide carry-over a risk in 2022
Reading Time: < 1 minute Saskatchewan’s pulse, canola and wheat commissions have created a six-page fact sheet on factors affecting herbicide carry-over and the risk that poses. “Herbicide carry-over becomes a concern after dry conditions because soil moisture largely dictates the rate of soil residual herbicide breakdown due to its influence on two of the major degradation mechanisms: microbial activity […] Read more
High speed internet is finally on its way, say governments
Broadband projects to be announced soon, work to start in spring
Reading Time: < 1 minute The province and Ottawa say the long-awaited broadband expansion for rural Alberta will see “shovels in the ground” when the construction season gets underway this spring. Ottawa is matching the province’s $150-million pledge to expand broadband in rural, remote and Indigenous communities in Alberta. The two governments have agreed to jointly “select and move forward […] Read more
Vaccination survey closing soon
Reading Time: < 1 minute The Beef Cattle Research Council is asking cow-calf producers in Western Canada to take 15 to 20 minutes to fill out a survey on vaccinations. The survey is conducted periodically to gauge the level of vaccinations and what producers are vaccinating for. It is part of an “extension initiative to optimize strategic vaccinations in beef […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
