John Gehrer delivers up to 1,000 litres of diesel per day with an electric car.

Searching for sustainability in agriculture

A southern Manitoba farmer’s quest for a “greener” farming system has left him with more questions than answers — and feeling a bit hypocritical

In 1888 Bertha Benz drove her homemade car on a 212-km round trip to Mannheim and Pforzheim in Germany. The fuel tank was 4.5 litres, and there were no gas stations along the way. There were probably no paved roads either and the reliability of the car was unproven. It might have been easier to […] Read more

brussels sprouts

Vegetable crop production on the Prairies

Part 2 of a series on Prairie farm gardens

At the countless farm sites I have visited over almost 50 years from coast to coast in Canada, from Newfoundland to Vancouver Island, I have come across outstanding crop growing innovations and excellent crops as well as abject crop failures. To deal logically with the extensive range of crops, I put them, as described previously, […] Read more


ethanol production plant in western manitoba

Picks and shovels for the alternative energy industry

The dominant players in the biofuels sector today are the traditional grain handlers and processors

It’s said that the big money, in gold rushes of yore, wasn’t in the gold miners but in those who supplied the picks and shovels. Vendors of sins, booze and brothels also did well. With this issue we’ll have a look at companies that, while not wholly reliant on alternative energy, stand to benefit from […] Read more

les henry's soil moisture map 2023

A new year, a new soil moisture map

Let's take a Prairie-wide view of soil moisture at freeze-up in 2023

To make a soil moisture map, you need to understand the soil moisture constants: saturation, field capacity, wilting point and plant-available water. Saturation (Sat) is when all soil pores are filled with water — in other words, the water table. Until recently we did not consider the water table to be high enough to provide […] Read more



Echinacea plants are a beautiful addition to the garden. As herbalists will tell you, echinacea is also an excellent natural remedy during cold and flu season and has many other uses.

The benefits of echinacea

They’re pretty to look at, but echinacea plants also have been used for centuries to produce herbal remedies for a host of ills

Hey there and hi, y’all good people! Ted here and welcome to the program. This is the final Grainews issue for 2023. Are you into the Christmas spirit yet? Just as Rudolph is the most famous reindeer of all, according to a seasonal song, echinacea is famous for its contribution to helping humans stay well. No […] Read more



Lorne Hepworth (right), pictured here in 2021 accepting the Saskatchewan Order of Merit from Sask. Lieutenant Governor Russ Mirasty. Photo: Brighten Creative Group

Hepworth honoured for agricultural achievements

The London, Ont. resident started as a Sask. farmer and vet before moving to politics, then research

Lorne Hepworth, former Saskatchewan agriculture minister and current chair of the Agriculture Research Institute of Ontario, has been named a member of the Order of Canada.



A chickpea and flax intercrop mix on Colin Rosengren’s farm at Midale, Sask.

Cover crops: enough already

The benefits are often 'blown up' while the challenges are understated

Cover crops is a topic with a lot of ink spilled in many farm publications in recent years. Some scribblers seem to imply that a farmer is a laggard and an environmental hazard if she/he is not using cover crops on a regular basis. Cover crops actually include a wide variety of cropping sequences, and […] Read more