Columns & Production Tips

Expensive new equipment or older/cheaper: Which makes more sense?

Higher cost of newer equipment can pay off, but only if there's a benefit

By Scott Garvey December 7, 2023

In late 1978 I bought a new Ford 4×4 pickup truck. The sticker price was under $10,000 and my job at the time was paying me around $25,000 a year. That meant the truck, at about a third of my annual income, was pretty affordable. Using the Bank of Canada’s inflation calculator, that truck would […] Read more

Editor's column, Wheat & Chaff

Editor’s Column: Live and learn, it beats the alternative

By Dave Bedard December 6, 2023

Here’s the thing: I knew I wanted this column to be about learning, but after sitting here staring for far too long at the screen, blank except for that title and my name — pausing only to fall down a search rabbit hole about the origin of the word “poseur” — I figured I’d better […] Read more

Darren Lorentz visited this rusting chassis of a farm tractor many times over the years during his walks through a southwest Edmonton park. And it wasn’t until a few months ago that he decided to ask around if anyone could tell what make or model it was. He figures it was probably one of the relics left behind after the city annexed farmland in the early 1970s. And, it didn’t take too long to get an answer.

Columns, Hart Attacks

The case of the mystery tractor

There wasn’t much to go on, but an expert was able to solve the case

By Lee Hart December 5, 2023

Darren Lorentz didn’t hold out much hope of figuring out the make and model of a farm tractor from just the rusted-out frame of the machine that had sat in the brush near a popular southwest Edmonton park pathway for decades. As a community resident walking the pathways of Tomas Opalinski Park for nearly 40 […] Read more

Canola meal, the byproduct of oil extraction from the popular prairie oilseed, is now a good fit in Canadian dairy cow diets.

Dairy Cattle, Livestock, The Dairy Corner

Canola meal makes milk on Canadian dairy farms

Dairy Corner: It’s readily available and priced better than some other proteins

By Peter Vitti November 24, 2023

If there is anything that defines a truly Canadian crop, it’s canola. Much of its intense breeding work started in the mid-60s by Drs. Downey and Stefansson. By the late 1970s, they successfully eliminated high levels of anti-nutritional components from rapeseed oil and turned it into a valuable food for humans. Likewise, canola meal, a […] Read more

Columns

More investing opportunities in alternative energy

A look at wind and solar energies and electric vehicles

By Herman VanGenderen November 16, 2023

My last column looked at potential investments in nuclear and geothermal, two viable alternative energy sources. Let’s now look at possibilities in what’s considered the alternative energy holy trinity of wind, solar and electric vehicles. These three areas have taken most alternative energy investments over the past decade. Estimates of what has already been spent […] Read more

‘So what if cows eject a bit of methane out both ends. What in the name of common sense do climate alarmists think the 60-million-plus buffalo did when they roamed freely on the open Plains up until the late 1800s?’ – Les Henry.

Columns, Crops

Les Henry: Sequestering carbon with grass crops

The amount sequestered in the soil is significant

By Les Henry November 15, 2023

Carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere and organic matter (carbon) in our soils are topics of great current interest. Two big questions that take up much ink these days are: 1) how can we emit less CO2 with farming practices and 2) how can we sequester more carbon (C) in our soils to maintain high […] Read more

Andrea taking a ride through the high range to see if there are any cattle left. It won't belong before the snow arrives.

Cattleman’s Corner, Rancher’s Diary

Pleased with top sale prices for steers

Rancher’s Diary: Always more chores to prepare for winter

By Heather Smith Thomas November 9, 2023

September 27 Last Wednesday Andrea got her pickup hooked to the trailer at the loading dock, ready to go to auction, and we put hay in the trailer to create better footing for the cattle. That evening I put the steer calves and two open yearling heifers in the calving pen where they’d be easy […] Read more

Wheat & Chaff

Prairie Memoirs: Enough trouble for one night

By Usher Berger November 6, 2023

Kerry was glad to be speeding home. She thought about her father who always complained about how she exceeded the speed limit. “I hope you get caught. Maybe that will slow you down before you have an accident,” he often said. Now that she had her own beautiful, red Toyota, she could drive as she […] Read more

What manure does over and above its nutrient content is to provide organic carbon matter, which does wonders for soils.

Columns, Crops, Livestock

Manuring cropland can be misunderstood and overdone

Sources of manure and compost

By Ieuan Evans November 1, 2023

There are some 60,000 cow-calf farms and 20,000 dairy operations in Canada. Cattle numbers are around 12.5 million with more than 40 per cent of this total in Alberta. Alberta also had 90 per cent of the beef feedlots with lesser numbers in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. There are 14 million hogs at any time in […] Read more

In canola, certain seed treatments have efficacy on flea beetles, cutworms, or both.

Crops, Wheat & Chaff

Before you place your seed order, consider this

Q & A with an expert

By Derek Flad November 1, 2023

Q: What should I consider when choosing seed varieties for the next growing season? A: Seed-selling season seems to come earlier each year. Though it feels counterintuitive to buy next year’s seed before current crops are in the bin, logistics and contra- season seed production in South America make it necessary to start this process […] Read more

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