Reading Time: 2 minutes Henry Janzen, a research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Lethbridge research station, is a master at disconcertion – the art of needling those with entrenched views without making them prickly. At the invitation of the National Centre for Livestock and the Environment in Winnipeg, Janzen recently took his audience through an hour-long discussion of […] Read more
The Role Of Livestock In Renewing The Earth
The Biggest Company You’ve Never Heard Of
Reading Time: 2 minutes With the end of the Canadian Wheat Board now virtually certain following the election of a Conservative majority, it was interesting to see that news coincide with a glimpse of a company that may soon play a bigger part in the Canadian grain-marketing future. On May 4, Swiss-based Glencore, sometimes described as “the biggest company […] Read more
Government Needs To Reinstate EG&S Pilot Project
Reading Time: 3 minutes As Alberta farmers and ranchers make strides in reducing their carbon footprint with new winter-feeding methods for livestock, they continue to be hindered by explosive over-populations of deer and elk. Many farmers are attempting to practise low-cost and environmentally friendly forms of livestock feeding such as bale grazing, swath grazing and banked standing forage. These […] Read more
Irrigation — Conservation Technology Can Only Go So Far
Reading Time: 3 minutes Irrigation is one of the agricultural success stories in southern Alberta and one would assume that more would be better, and that would be true except for the political challenges. At this point those challenges would appear to stifle any future large-scale expansion of irrigated land in this province. I am referring to the creation […] Read more
Why Don’t We Know Where Our Food Comes From?
Reading Time: 2 minutes Time and again, when I talk with both farmers and consumers about local food and supporting farmers, I am asked why we have such a poor labelling system for food grown and produced in Canada. As citizens, we have the right to know where our food comes from. We also have the right to know […] Read more
The Americans Are Giving Us Advice On Wheat Yields?
Reading Time: 3 minutes Last month, U.S. Wheat Associates vice-president Vince Peterson told the annual meeting of the Canada Grains Council in Winnipeg that genetically modified wheat is inevitable. The theory is that higher yields are needed for a hungry world, and to make wheat competitive with corn and soybeans. USWA wants all exporters to agree to simultaneous introduction […] Read more
The News That No Livestock Farmer Wants To Hear
Reading Time: 3 minutes When Mr. Fana Mdlalose found one of his cattle slavering, he knew it meant trouble. Excessive saliva and drooling are symptoms of one of the worst problems livestock farmers have to face – foot-and-mouth disease, or FMD. In many FMD outbreaks, livestock are culled to prevent the disease from spreading further. Mr. Mdlalose worried that […] Read more
BSE Testing For Marketing Is Put To Rest… Sort Of
Reading Time: 3 minutes Since the outbreak back in 2003, the concept of BSE testing as a marketing tool has been one of those exasperating “what if” scenarios. What if such BSE testing had been done from the beginning? Would export beef markets have been reopened a lot sooner? Would the billions in losses borne by cattle producers and […] Read more
Food In Canada — Eat At Your Own Risk
Reading Time: 2 minutes An excerpt from an editorial in the April 14 issue of the Canadian Medical Journal Canada’s public and private sectors are not doing enough to prevent food-borne illnesses. Among the major failings are inadequate active surveillance systems, an inability to trace foods from “farm to fork” and a lack of incentives to keep food safe […] Read more
New Alberta Farmer Reporter Finds A Home
Reading Time: 3 minutes I went home to Winnipeg, and now I’m working forAlberta Farmer.But there’s an explanation for it, I promise. I was born and raised in Winnipeg, but after 30 winters of frigid winters and summers dodging mosquitoes the size of baseballs, I’d had enough. I left the big-city news media to take a job as editor […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
