Lees insight

Well my jeans are too tight today, so I think that speaks volumes about how 2011 went, as well as what’s ahead for 2012. It was generally a pretty good year, but there’s always room for improvement and a place for “change” in the coming months. I didn’t make any New Year’s Resolutions because they […] Read more

I was going to write something cute and clever this morning, after the big Christmas break, until I read the news report that Manitoba beef producer Major Jay Fox was being laid to rest today (Wednesday) after dying from injuries suffered in a farm accident last Friday. He was 32. It is one of those […] Read more

Grainews App works A few months ago I was lamenting in this column that the Grainews app you can download to have Grainews news, weather and sports on your cell phone didn’t work on my Blackberry. That complaint didn’t go over so well. But, regardless I am happy to report that the Grainews app does […] Read more

The story of a Pincher Creek, AB rancher getting fined $354 for helping a neighbor haul cattle to the auction, is another example of wondering whether the world has any common sense left. Assuming Barb Glen in her Western Producer report just didn’t make the whole thing up, (but as often is said, truth is […] Read more

Politics and political correctness drive me nuts sometimes. I am glad the provincial election is over in Saskatchewan so now everyone can get back to work. Premier Brad Wall and his Conservative government were re-elected Monday. I didn’t have any vested interest in the Saskatchewan election, other than I called a provincial government specialist a […] Read more

Perhaps the most newsworthy item out of a Toronto conference, which has brought together a couple hundred animal health industry people to talk about the issue of bacteria resistant to penicillin and a wide range of other modern drugs is that “they are working on it.” They are not going to wrap this event up […] Read more

I turned 60 today, and that is a hard fact not just to admit, but to accept. God that’s old. The good news is that I am down to my last 20 years of work and then I can rest. Speaking of work and old age, however, I was reading a marketing column this morning […] Read more

Any Canadian beef producers who have been sitting by the computer waiting for this day — it is here: The Canadian Cattleman’s Association Beef Information Exchange System (BIXS) is launched, it is out there, it is up and running, it is ready for use.  Go to http://bixs.cattle.ca to see it all. BIXS, which has been […] Read more

A week ago Saturday, I was having a full English breakfast in a bed and breakfast in Pevensey Bay, over looking the English Channel. Yesterday, (Saturday Oct. 1) I had a breakfast bagel at the Tim Horton’s restaurant in Stettler, AB were a couple farmers and few rig workers were getting ready to start their […] Read more

Well we have just come through the blogging blackhole of rural England and are now back in London. I am sure I could have found internet service some place the last few days, but they just didn’t make these 18th century cottages like they should have — with free WiFi. We disappeared into the English […] Read more