Reading Time: 3 minutes For the first time in 40 years voters are being presented with a real choice in political parties and they are sharing their affections almost equally with both. The recently held Wildrose Alliance (WA) party convention was by all accounts big and professionally run, but was a rather mundane affair with no embarrassing resolution gaffes. […] Read more
Wildrose Alliance Agriculture Policy Seems Familiar
Chemical Options For Controlling Invasive Species On Pasture
Reading Time: 3 minutes There was a time when the foothills area of southeastern Alberta was an ocean of grass with barely any brush or even a weed in sight anywhere. Not so today, about 120 years later. It’s been said that in many areas 30 per cent or more of the old rangelands have been lost to weed […] Read more
Checkoff repercussions dominate ABP meeting
Reading Time: 2 minutes “We will soon be the only exporting in the world that does not have a national checkoff in place.” CHUCK MACLEAN ABP The semi-annual meeting of Alberta Beef Producers (ABP) here earlier this month was dominated by an undercurrent that affected most of the formal and informal discussions. The issue was the delay by new […] Read more
Delayed Checkofiamendment A Stick To Unify Industry?
Reading Time: 3 minutes I would suggest that the concept of creating one united super-voice for cattle producers in Alberta is wishful thinking at its best. Whether by circumstance or design, the delay in amending the refundable cattle checkoff is causing much consternation with many cattle producers and their affected organizations and agencies, not just in Alberta but across […] Read more
Government Uses Incentives To Save Faltering Program
Reading Time: 3 minutes If feedlot owners or final sellers want to reap the value of age verification from a market premium, they should be obliged to buy that information from the original owner at a negotiated price. You have to hand it to Alberta Agriculture officials, when they make a policy decision they intend to fight for it […] Read more
Long-Gun Issue Just Never Seems To Go Away
Reading Time: 3 minutes People have come to accept that they have to get a licence to buy a gun, no different than having to get a driver’s licence to drive, so be it. It’s a topic that has been kicked around ad nauseam, but it seems our federal politicians can’t resist waking up this old dog. The long-gun […] Read more
Rights groups and their tactics have moved to Canada
Reading Time: 3 minutes What better way than to use scenes of alleged horrendous horse cruelty to shock gullible citizens into some sort of reaction? The state of processing horses for meat in Canada has again become a sensational headline in the mainstream urban media. Video scenes of alleged cruelty were recent feature news on national TV networks. No […] Read more
BSE Lawsuit Has A Good Case But Settlement May Be Far Off
Reading Time: 4 minutes “I wish them well, but they are up against one tough, unforgiving adversary that takes no prisoners and never admits to even the slightest mistake.” A lot of cattle producers may not know it, but a coalition of law firms and cattlemen from across Canada are spending a lot of time and money trying to […] Read more
BSE Lawsuit Moves Slowly Through The Courts
Reading Time: 2 minutes CAMERON PALLET “I felt that after looking at the circumstances, the federal government couldn’t get away with this” TORONTO LAWYER, LEGAL COUNSEL More than 200 cattle producers attended a March 31 rally here to hear the latest update on a class-action lawsuit to recover damages from alleged federal mishandling of BSE. The meeting, organized by […] Read more
It’s Time For Farm Labour To Be Treated Equally With Other Sectors
Reading Time: 3 minutes Recently Alberta Agriculture announced a new $715,000 grant program for farm safety, part of which will be given to local ag societies for safety promotion. That’s an admirable step by the government as education is always valuable. The fear with this grant is that it will be used as an excuse by the Alberta government […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
