Reading Time: < 1 minute A “carbon quantification” project that uses remote sensing to measure biomass and soil carbon on conservation projects on marginal farmland is getting a $1.5 million boost from the charitable arm of the country’s largest bank. ALUS (originally an acronym for Alternative Land Use Services) is a charitable organization that assists producers in 38 communities, nearly […] Read more
Eyes in the skies to boost effort to reward eco-system services
Schoepp: Some are demanding deep and misguided changes to farms
Reducing emissions or boosting green energy and indoor farming is fine, but controlling farms isn’t
Reading Time: 3 minutes I have been listening to regional and international panels addressing the future of food security. In many circles, the talk is of reducing animal agriculture, government acquiring food production lands, reducing crop inputs and alternative systems. It seems we are on the verge of trashing a complex natural ecology for non-food-bearing green spaces and vertical […] Read more
Buy or rent? Land rent-to-price ratio can help farmers decide
FCC sees current ratios on farmland as (roughly) stable
Higher interest rates don’t seem to be affecting the ratio between land values and land rental costs — at least, not yet. Farm Credit Canada’s latest analysis of farmland rental prices says they’re roughly maintaining their traditional linkage, says J.P Gervais, the organization’s chief economist. “We were curious to see whether that would bring up […] Read more
Thompson returns as P.E.I. ag minister
Ag and land ministry split; Compton not returning to cabinet
Prince Edward Island’s former agriculture minister is again its current ag minister, in a post-election cabinet shuffle by returning Premier Dennis King. Bloyce Thompson, MLA for the district of Stanhope-Marshfield since 2019 and ag minister from 2019 until last summer, was again appointed April 14 as King’s minister of agriculture, justice and public safety and […] Read more
4-H camps give kids a chance to develop new skills (and s’mores)
Reading Time: 3 minutes Summer is on the way, and so are 4-H camps, which have run every year since 1917 except for a COVID-19 break in 2021. “We get youth who come from all over to camp. A lot of the youth we serve in the camps are rural. This is the one camp that they hear about […] Read more
Study to look at re-opening abandoned rail line
Reading Time: < 1 minute The province and the Canada Infrastructure Bank are putting up $950,000 to study whether it’s feasible to reopen the rail line between Oyen and Lyalta, near Strathmore, that was abandoned more than a decade ago. “Expanding rail transportation networks presents a tremendous opportunity for east-central Alberta,” Oyen Mayor Doug Jones said in a provincial news […] Read more
Farmland is selling, but who’s paying the higher prices?
‘Non-traditional’ farmland buyers help drive up prices, highlighting tight land supplies across Canada
Reading Time: 3 minutes Farmland prices continue to rise across Canada, but who’s paying them? Not only farmers, says Farm Credit Canada’s chief economist. “We think there’s between nine to 15 per cent of (farmland) transactions that are purchases made by non-traditional buyers. That’s significant,” J.P. Gervais told an online news conference last month. Who are these non-traditional buyers? […] Read more
4-H program teaches kids to be judgmental — in a good way
Reading Time: 2 minutes People are often told not to judge, which in one sense is good advice. On the other hand, good judgment is an essential part of living. Perhaps a better term is critical thinking. That’s what 4-H Alberta aims to teach kids through its judging program, including its recent livestock and crop judging competition. “We always […] Read more
Demers-Collins is new Hall of Fame inductee
Reading Time: < 1 minute Simone Demers-Collins, a widely recognized authority on food quality, nutrition and food safety, has been inducted into the Alberta Agriculture Hall of Fame. Demers-Collins has been an advocate for the agriculture and agri-food industries, an educator and food champion for more than five decades. Through her work with Alberta Canola Producers, the Canola Council of […] Read more
Schoepp: Putting solar farms on good land is a misguided way to go green
The amount of arable land is finite and shrinking. Covering it with panels that could soon be obsolete is wrong
Reading Time: 3 minutes Farms hold promise for generating biofuel and clean biogas to power us into the future, and they also have the land base for building energy systems. But there is a vast difference between the capture of methane on site to produce gas and the permanent use of food production land for solar panels or wind […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
