As 2024 flew by, it can be tough to keep on top of all the news. Here’s a few stories that struck a chord with farmers in the Wild Rose province.
1. Alberta doubles down on rat strategy
Alberta has maintained its rat-free status for 70 years and the province wants to keep that streak alive.
The Alberta Invasive Species Council has launched a new campaign, “Rat on rats”, that encourages Albertans to report rats if they see them.
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2. A ‘miracle’ in calving season
Calving season can be a stressful and dramatic time on the ranch. There’s a lot of new life but there is often death as well.
Every once in a while, however, something happens that seems like a miracle. Just ask Chris Paulencu with Green Acres Cattle Company, a seedstock operation in central Alberta’s Lamont County. Thanks to a rare feat of science and a little faith, he and his wife, Amber, witnessed an apparently doomed first-calf heifer and her newborn survive in spite of overwhelming odds.
3. Alberta ranch to be largest Canadian conservation project ever
A historic southern Alberta ranch is now the largest-ever conservation project in Canada.
The McIntyre Ranch, south of Lethbridge, is a 54,000-acre (22,000-hectare) ranch started in 1894 and is one of the largest private landholdings in Canada.
The owners partnered up with Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC) and the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) to protect it from future development, while remaining a working ranch.
4. Massive new feedlot working out as planned, says owner
The last two years have produced many hair-raising situations for Alberta’s cattle producers and that’s been the case for feedlot owner Kevin Serfas, who has undertaken a massive feedyard expansion.
Based in Turin, about 50 kilometres north of Lethbridge, he runs Serfas Farms, a sizeable grain farm and feeder cattle business across multiple sites. It’s the cattle side, though, that has seen the most recent and drastic change at the farm.
5. New central Alberta wheat milling facility announced
Alberta’s milling sector got a boost to its capacity by 750 tonnes of wheat per day.
P&H Milling Group — a division of Parrish & Heimbecker, Limited — is building $241 million facility in the Red Deer County hamlet of Springbrook. The new facility will complement P&H’s wheat and durum milling operation in Lethbridge.
