Columns & Production Tips

AFAC spearheaded the deployment of emergency trailers across the province for use in emergencies such as barn fires or livestock transport rollovers.

Who will carry on AFAC’s work in Alberta?

The organization provided valuable services, including emergency livestock trailers

By Roy Lewis May 5, 2024

It is with sadness I heard about Alberta Farm Animal Care (AFAC) closing its doors in Alberta after 30 years, which I would say is after 30 years of extreme good. The great thing was that it was animal welfare-based through and through and had all the production animal groups on its board. They all […] Read more

Ergot is best recognized in the field as black or dark purple sclerotia sticking out of a floret.

Columns, Crops, Practical Tips

How a worldwide destructive cereal disease problem was solved in Alberta

In the story of ergot in wheat, barley and oats, the answer was simply 'copper'

By Ieuan Evans May 4, 2024

When I was first hired by Alberta Agriculture as a diagnostic plant pathologist, I was told I would be primarily responsible for barley, oat, wheat and canola diseases. I was also asked to head up the provincial control program for bacterial ring rot of potato (BRR). The BRR program, run in partnership with the federal […] Read more

Farmers, farm families and farm workers get more energy when they are clear about their roles, skills and passion being in alignment.

Columns, Farm Life

Who is responsible for what on your farm?

Seeds of Encouragement: Collaboration, consultation, clarification help build better work cultures

By Elaine Froese May 2, 2024

If you’re gearing up for spring planting or tending to livestock, you know there are many daily tasks to complete, and your mind may be saying “The work on this farm is never done.” Many young farmers are keen to work hard to prove they are ready to become farm managers — but what tools […] Read more

Vaccinating cows and calves and moving pairs out to pasture is a springtime task that takes priority on many farms across Western Canada.

Cattleman’s Corner, Columns

Springtime on the ranch is a hopeful tale

How calf processing has evolved on this ranch over the years

By Tara Mulhern Davidson April 29, 2024

Spring feels like the first chapter of a new book you hope becomes a favourite classic. At the start of a new growing season, you have an idea of the basic summary of the story. The familiar rhythms of the arrival of baby calves and planting crops are certain. However, you can never be sure […] Read more

Young children on the farm can be taught that they have as much responsibility to look out for other people on the farm as other people have to look out for them.

Wheat & Chaff

Normalizing farm safety from an early age

By Canadian Agricultural Safety Association April 29, 2024

Katie Keddy’s approach to teaching her two sons about safety on the farm is simple: normalize it. “We believe in teaching them lessons so that they grow up with safety as a culture on the farm instead of learning it as adults,” Keddy explains. Keddy and her husband, Philip, are second-generation farmers growing sweet potatoes […] Read more

Beef Cattle, Columns, Editor's column

Editor’s Rant: Fluency in flu

By Dave Bedard April 27, 2024

When this issue hits your mailbox (on or around May 7), we’ll be at about the peak of one of the best meteor showers Earth sees this year. Wishing on shooting stars is silly at best, but if I see one — other than my standing wish for seven bucks and the winning 6/49 ticket […] Read more

More seeds than I need from Seedy Saturday -- but good for sharing.

Columns, Farm Life

Seedy Saturdays

First We Eat: A freshly pulled carrot from the garden will remind you why this vegetable is such a mainstay

By dee Hobsbawn-Smith April 26, 2024

Back in March, I joined a crowd of people purposefully moving from booth to table to booth at St. Mary’s Wellness and Education Centre in Saskatoon. The occasion was the annual Seedy Saturday, an opportunity amidst the snow and ice for gardeners to buy seeds and think about spring. Seedy Saturdays occur across Canada under […] Read more

A hydrologist and a farmer draw water from a 30-foot sampling well in western Iowa, testing for nitrate and herbicides.

Columns

Nitrate down the well

Soils & Crops: If you move onto an old farmyard with an existing well, don’t drink the water without first getting it tested

By Les Henry April 24, 2024

This column has dealt with this topic several times over the decades we have been scribbling. Recent sources have raised the nitrate issue again. It deserves repeating once in a while, to make sure no more infants die from the blue-baby condition (methemoglobinemia). The link between nitrate-contaminated farmyard wells and blue-baby was first reported by […] Read more

If you manage to get timing right once and miss a big part of a bear market, you must again get it right to buy back at the very bottom.

Columns, Global markets

Trying to time the market can ravage a portfolio

Investing for Fun & Profit: A commitment to invest in stocks means acceptance of their inherent volatility

By Herman VanGenderen April 23, 2024

Many things perceived as impossible are indeed possible — but some aren’t. I just finished reading a book about many of humanity’s greatest discoveries. A theme throughout was how these potential inventions were scoffed at, yet through persistence inventors accomplished the impossible. One of the most satisfying aspects of my agricultural career was proving the […] Read more

standing stubble from a fall harvested crop

Columns, Crops

Drought preparedness through soil and crop management

After each dry year, adapt your drought plan based on your experiences and what you learned

By Ross H. McKenzie April 18, 2024

As spring approaches, the agricultural community is becoming increasingly concerned about potential forecasts of drought across the southern Prairies. And rightly so; the print and electronic media have posted numerous drought-related articles. Wide areas of southern Alberta and southwestern Saskatchewan and their dryland farms, irrigated farms and ranching areas could be affected. But what helpful […] Read more

GFM Network News

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