New slimmed-down Alberta Beef Producers readies for launch

Nominations must be submitted by Oct. 15

Reading Time: < 1 minute Election time is drawing near for Alberta Beef Producers. It’s been nearly a year since it approved a re-org that cuts its number of zones by nearly half and reduces the number of delegates by one-third. The organization is now accepting nominations for delegates (seven each) in its new five zones (northwest, northeast, central, southwest […] Read more

This photo was taken back in the days when Alberta Pork was the single-desk seller of hogs in the province. While returning to a single desk might not be possible, hog producers should consider collective marketing, the farm organization argues.

Alberta Pork urges producers to consider marketing co-op

Banding together would fix a ‘broken’ system and force packers to pay a fair price, says organization

Reading Time: 2 minutes Alberta Pork is urging hog farmers in the province to band together to force packers to pay a fair price for their animals. And that includes thinking about returning to a single-desk model or forming marketing co-operatives to “shift the balance of power back to producers.” In an analysis of the sector covering the past […] Read more


Beef webinar season kicks off for October

Beef webinar season kicks off for October

Reading Time: < 1 minute The new season of Beef Cattle Research Council webinars kicks off Oct. 28 with a session on combating invasive weeds. The other five webinars will look at using financial tools, dealing with reproductive failure in a cow herd, using benchmarking to boost productivity, achieving breeding goals, and record-keeping for forage and grassland management. The webinars, […] Read more

Agri-Trade organizers cancel event for this year

Agri-Trade organizers cancel event for this year

Reading Time: < 1 minute In the end, holding Agri-Trade this year was just too steep a hill to climb. Organizers of the Red Deer equipment expo say even though they felt they could meet provincial guidelines for holding the Nov. 11-13 event they “felt had no choice but to cancel the show.” The deciding factor was policies restricting travel […] Read more


Repayment of 2018 cash advances now due

Repayment of 2018 cash advances now due

Deadline is September 30

Reading Time: < 1 minute If you took advantage of Ottawa’s extended repayment deadline for cash advances, the time to pay the loan has run out. In March, the deadlines for repayments of 2018 cash advances for grains, oilseeds pulses, cattle and bison were extended to Sept. 30 (from April 30 previously) because of the pandemic. The extensions, which affected […] Read more

Alberta sugar beet growers seeing turnaround

Alberta sugar beet growers seeing turnaround

Reading Time: < 1 minute After a terrible harvest in 2019, sugar beet growers in southern Alberta are hoping to have two successful ones this fall. The first “mini” harvest was conducted earlier this month, with about 180,000 tonnes to be delivered to the Lantic-Rogers processing plant in Taber. The early delivery will allow the plant to ramp up to […] Read more


Pilot project expands animal disease diagnostics

Pilot project expands animal disease diagnostics

Reading Time: < 1 minute The University of Calgary faculty of veterinary medicine is expanding its diagnostic service unit for enhanced animal disease diagnosis and welfare. A four-year pilot will add a clinical microbiologist, an anatomic pathologist and support staff to the unit. This will allow it to “support livestock producers through private veterinary clinics in rural Alberta, protect public […] Read more

Alberta farmland prices rise again

Alberta farmland prices rise again

Reading Time: < 1 minute Farmland prices in Canada are “once again showing modest increases” in the first half of the year — except in Alberta and Saskatchewan, according to the latest report from Farm Credit Canada. While the national average increase was 3.7 per cent, Alberta saw a jump of 8.5 per cent in the 12 months ending in […] Read more


From left are library CEO Michelle Toombs, Wheatland County Reeve Amber Link, Siksika Nation Councillor Reuben (Buck) Breaker, library chair Lynda Lyster, WID chair Dan Shute, Airdrie East MLA Angela Pitt, Strathmore Councillor Denise Peterson, WID general manager David McAllister, and Bow River MP Martin Shields.

Books and irrigation can go hand-in-hand

Reading Time: < 1 minute It’s not just the face mask that makes this groundbreaking ceremony different. Local officials gathered earlier this month to celebrate a unique venture — construction of a 34,000-square-foot building that will be shared by the Marigold Library System and Western Irrigation District (WID) in Strathmore. In addition to being home to 70 employees from both […] Read more

Clear sailing on a perfect harvest day

Clear sailing on a perfect harvest day

Reading Time: < 1 minute Harvesting conditions were ideal — clear, dry and the temperature hitting 27 C — on this Stony Plain-area operation on Sept. 10. But more good weather will be needed to get all the crops in. The Sept. 8 provincial crop report said just 8.8 per cent of crops had been harvested in the North West […] Read more