Reading Time: 3 minutes Laura Bodell got a chance to see agriculture from a new perspective when she won a scholarship to attend the Commonwealth Agriculture Conference in Singapore this fall. “I had a particular interest in attending this conference since I’m chair of the International Agricultural Business Centre during Farmfair,” said Bodell. The Sherwood Park resident, who has […] Read more
Singapore trip offers Albertan a new global view on agriculture
Passion and drive allow farmers to overcome any hurdle
Reading Time: 3 minutes Emily Ritchie of Turner Valley was the senior winner in the first annual Alberta Young Speakers for Agriculture competition at the Calgary Stampede for her speech on the challenges facing the next generation of farmers. How many of you have a cellphone in your pocket? This is a new phenomenon but as times change, technology […] Read more
Crop conditions improve, harvest operations underway
Alberta crop conditions as of August 9
Reading Time: 2 minutes Rains continued to fall across the province stretching from the Peace Region to the Southern Region. Provincially, crop conditions improved for all Regions from a week ago and are rated as 84 per cent in good or excellent condition, up one per cent from a week ago and up 13 per cent from the 5-year […] Read more
Explaining agriculture — one sign at a time
Reading Time: < 1 minute Consumer interest in how food is produced is at an all-time high — but most people don’t really know what they’re looking at when driving through farm country. But Agriculture for Life has come up with an innovative campaign called ‘What’s in the Field?’ to address that. The idea is simple: Producers register on the Ag […] Read more
Crops conditions mostly good, precipitation ranging excessive to dry
Alberta crop conditions as of June 28
Reading Time: 2 minutes June saw highly variable amounts of precipitation fall in the province from near excessive amounts of 150-250 per cent of normal in the Peace region, to above average quantities of 100-200 per cent in the North West, to below average of 50-100 per cent in the North East, and dry conditions to the Central and […] Read more
Foreign worker break for seafood sector a ‘one-time’ deal
Winnipeg | Reuters –– Canada’s move to loosen restrictions on hiring foreign workers for East Coast seafood plants was a one-time decision, and the government is not convinced other sectors need similar measures, the country’s employment minister said Thursday. The Liberal government eased restrictions under its foreign worker program recently for Atlantic seafood processors, allowing […] Read more
Extended grazing saves time and money — if done right
Winter grazing is a simple concept, but the trick is in things like good body condition scores in fall and the right grazing sequence
Reading Time: 3 minutes Winter feeding cattle is a matter of using the right tool at the right time, says a federal forage specialist. “Placing grazing methods in sequence is probably going to be the efficient method time after time to reduce risks and costs,” said Vern Baron, a research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. “In this day […] Read more
Every item of the feast has a great story behind it
When the table is set, give thanks to those who grew and processed the food — and all those who played a role in its history
Reading Time: 4 minutes My son gifts me a subscription to a Quebec-based cuisine magazine entitled Ricardo. The last issue had a little sidebar that read, “If you calculate the time elapsed from the moment seeds are sown, the festive meal takes an average of 295 days to land on our tables.” When you think about great meals in […] Read more
Rookie MP named Bloc’s agriculture critic
The Bloc Quebecois has tapped a rookie Montreal-area MP from its expanded 10-member caucus to serve as its new critic for agriculture and agri-food. Simon Marcil won the newly created riding of Mirabel in last month’s election by a spread of 837 votes over Mylene Freeman, the incumbent NDP MP for Argenteuil-Papineau-Mirabel and the party’s […] Read more
Alta. names new deputy ag minister
A former assistant deputy minister in municipal affairs is now Alberta’s chief agricultural bureaucrat. Beverly Yee was named Thursday as the new deputy minister for agriculture and forestry, replacing Jason Krips. Yee, who has worked for the province since 1994, has held several executive management positions, the province said. Her most recent posting was as […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
