Lees insight

SMAll BUT POWERFUL I love practical research results that really speak to me. I was reading this morning that researchers in the United Kingdom have determined that people with a few extra pounds around their waist — these even used the word obese— have smaller brains — 12 per cent smaller than people who aren’t over […] Read more

Maybe you haven’t been going to the gym yourself lately, well never mind — at least check the body condition of your cattle this winter and give them a score. It is probably one of those management things many producers say “ya, I should do that one of these days” and maybe others feel they […] Read more

Another internationally produced edition of Grainews has gone to bed. I’m still surprised some days how technology makes it so easy to access the world. Just with my small part of the publication, this coming issue of Grainews (December) is coming to you with contributions from Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Montana, a bit of North […] Read more

October 17 should be a national holiday in Canada. I don’t know if you are as excited as I am to know that the recreational use of cannabis — marijuana, pot, weed — becomes legal tomorrow. Who has been able to sleep? Is the excitement over the prospect of legal pot overwhelming the rural Canadian community […] Read more

You might want to keep the kids at home for some relatively cheap labour if you plan to switch your 200 or 300 head beef cow-calf operation to a fairly labour intensive livestock production method that’s part of what’s known as the permaculture system. However, for smaller, mixed farming, multi-species operations looking to produce specialty […] Read more

Boy, did I get my Ag In Motion yesterday. Day 1 of the fourth annual farm show near Langham, Sask and it was hot. Like 34 degrees. I’m not really a 34 degree person, but I toughed it out. Part of the day I was on volunteer duty that involved crowd control at the tillage […] Read more

Do you want to grow grains and oilseeds, and/or hay and pasture without any or at least much-reduced input costs, yet maintain production and increase profitability? Well making that happen is a simple answer— get the soil healthy and get it working for you. That’s the overall message from the recent three-day Soil Health Academy school […] Read more

It maybe far out thinking in an era dominated by new technology that promises to give control, define, push limits and make everything bigger, faster, stronger, and more efficient in life, but let’s see what earth worms and soil microbes – which have been around since the dawn of dirt- can do in improving crop […] Read more

I figured Manning, AB in Alberta’s Peace River region would be a good place to re-launch this blog that has been sitting dormant way too long. I arrived in Manning Wednesday afternoon –about 900 clicks north of Calgary — to attend the first-in-Canada Soil Health Academy School. (I’m sure I will be filled with so much […] Read more

Regardless of what U.S. President Donald Trump thinks about Canadian agriculture… (go ahead call him a ________________(fill in the blank)), not all Americans have the same view. Montana grain buyers and millers have been interested in Canadian grains ever since the Canadian Wheat Board folded, and recently business development reps from the Great Falls, Mt. […] Read more