Brent Punga, owner of AgroMax in Regina, said the raw materials for the product have to be shipped from India.

Once they arrive, the company will begin making the product it discontinued several years ago after the federal government ruled it was too toxic to non-target wildlife and caused an inhumane death.

WHY IT MATTERS: Strychnine to control gophers was phased out in Canada starting in 2020 toward a complete ban by 2024. Burgeoning populations and considerable damage to crops and pastures, however, led the two provinces to request an emergency-use registration last fall.

Health Canada announced March 30 it had approved a revised application from the two provinces after initially denying their request for emergency use registration.

It is in effect in parts of each jurisdiction until November 2027, but producers and rural municipalities will have to wait until the poison is available.

Numerous farm organizations had also called for its reinstatement.

Alberta agriculture minister R.J. Sigurdson told the House of Commons agriculture committee that damages in the last three years had increased from $80 million to $800 million.

“This is becoming a disaster in Alberta,” he said earlier in March.

Some restrictions apply

The reinstatement comes with restrictions, including a narrower window in which strychnine can be applied and measures to protect species at risk.

Saskatchewan Agriculture Minister David Marit said for 2026, the product can be used between July 15 and Sept. 1.

In 2027, application can be done between March 1 and June 15 before plants green up, and again between July 15 and Sept. 1.

The species-at-risk measures include increased monitoring, carcass collection and disposal requirements, and enhanced mandatory training. More details on these are still to come.

Saskatchewan is currently developing a strychnine stewardship program and expects training to be available in late spring.

Seven Saskatchewan crop districts in the southwest, southeast, south-central and northwest will have access, based on Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corp. claims data and the presence of species at risk.

In Alberta, most of the grain-growing region is included.

Both ministers said program details are still in development.

“We are working to procure supply and fully implement the agreement as soon as possible, and we will continue to work closely with farmers and ranchers across the province in the coming days to share more information,” Sigurdson said.

Marit said producers in that province have been clear they face challenges managing gophers with the other products available to them.

Reaction, so far

Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities president Bill Huber said the emergency registration was “a significant win for our members.”

“SARM will continue to work with governments and producers to ensure this tool is used responsibly and effectively,” he said.

Others thanked the provincial government for continuing to push producers’ concerns. Saskatchewan Stock Growers Association president Jeff Yorga called it a “common sense, made-in-Saskatchewan solution.”

Many noted the escalating damage and negative economic impacts since strychnine was eliminated.

SaskOats chair Elwood White said the population has increased sharply in some regions since 2023.

“This revised emergency use registration shows we can use strychnine safely while still protecting wildlife,” said SaskBarley chair Cody Glenn.

Grain Growers of Canada said it is only a temporary measure, and grain farmers need consistent access to effective pest management tools.

Not all were happy, though. Some comments on Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe’s Facebook page pointed out that strychnine puts pets and other animals at risk.

Animal Justice said it was disappointed and called the decision “an unscientific reversal of (the federal government’s) own earlier findings that the poison poses unacceptable risks to animals and the environment.”

In a letter, it and several other organizations said strychnine causes horrific pain and suffering for animals that can last for 24 hours.

The Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation and SARM announced prior to the recent decision, as they also did last year, that landowners experiencing problems with gophers could contact the SWF. The organization would then connect landowners with experienced SWF members for gopher control.

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Health Canada, which oversees the federal Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA), announced Monday evening it has authorized a “time-limited and controlled” emergency-use registration for the rodent poison for those two provinces, running until November 2027.

WHY IT MATTERS: Other pest controls are available for use against gophers but farmers find strychnine both more effective and easier to use.

The new decision follows the federal government’s cancellations of all registered uses of strychnine in recent years, and a joint application for the product’s emergency use filed by the two provinces’ agriculture ministries last October.

PMRA had rejected that joint application in February, saying its proposals “did not provide sufficient means to address the risks of concern identified in the re-evaluation that led to strychnine’s cancellation.”

The earlier cancellations had been based on an updated environmental risk assessment, which had found no “practical risk-reduction measures to protect non-target animals” if they fed on strychnine-poisoned pest or predator animal carcasses or directly on poisoned gopher bait.

But…

However, Health Canada said Monday, the two provinces last week filed a revised joint emergency-use request which includes “additional restrictions and mitigations … to lower the environmental risk to an acceptable level.”

The “significant” added measures in the new plan include a “reduced geographical scope” and “revised product stewardship program,” among others, Health Canada said.

Further details on the new measures weren’t immediately available Monday night.

Since strychnine’s uses were cancelled, farmers and ranchers have been raising concerns about on-farm efficacy of other products still registered for use against gophers.

The temporary use of strychnine will help farmers address “multi-million dollars worth of damage” in various crops from a recent spike in populations of gophers, a.k.a. Richardson’s ground squirrels (RGS), Health Canada said Monday.

Health Canada noted the Prairies have been experiencing “abnormally dry conditions, which (affect) the sustainability and quality of farmlands and allowed the population of these gophers to increase significantly.”

Reaction so far

“Saskatchewan producers have been clear about the challenges they face in managing gophers with the limited tools currently available,” provincial Agriculture Minister David Marit said Monday in Health Canada’s release. “We’re pleased to see the emergency-use request granted as a practical opportunity for producers to demonstrate how strychnine can help protect their crops and pastures from continued damage.”

“Alberta’s producers have faced significant challenges managing (gophers) and the loss of this control method was difficult and costly for many in the ag sector,” RJ Sigurdson, Alberta’s minister for agriculture and irrigation, said in the same release.

“I’m confident that, with this effective tool back in the hands of our producers, they will be able to better manage their operations and reduce excessive crop and grassland losses due to the overpopulation of RGS throughout the Prairies.”

“Innovative and collaborative efforts by all levels of government are needed to support the domestic agriculture industry especially during this period of uncertainty,” federal health minister Marjorie Michel and agriculture minister Heath MacDonald said in the same release.

“Our governments’ shared commitment of supporting Canadian farmers, our economy and food security led us to work together to address a compounding threat.”

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Federal agriculture minister Heath MacDonald announced Feb. 25 the change would be implemented for the 2026 program year. Ministers had committed to this change at their meeting in July.

Livestock producers had asked for this to make the program more attractive to that sector.

WHY IT MATTERS: The costs related to feeding grazing animals on rented pasture were not allowable and producers argued they should be.

The federal government said this would provide more equitable support for cow-calf, sheep and goat producers.

MacDonald said the government is committed to effective, responsive programs for all producers.

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“Just a reminder, CCIA, we are the responsible administrator,” general manager Ashley Scott said during the recent Saskatchewan Beef Industry Conference.

“CFIA, they are the regulator and the enforcer.”

A “responsible administrator” is defined as “someone responsible for delivering a traceability program defined by federal regulations.”

These “federal regulations” are set by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, responsible for safeguarding food safety. It also sets the objectives of the National Livestock Identification and Traceability program.

“The Livestock Identification Traceability program provides accurate and up-to-date livestock identity, movement and location information to mitigate the impact of disease outbreaks and food safety concerns and natural disasters,” Scott said.

The traceability regulatory changes introduced in Canada Gazette I were working toward Canada Gazette II, and include the proposed changes that the cattle industry was against.

The changes, which face opposition by some in the cattle industry, include:

• Identification and registration of premises where livestock are kept or collected.
• Identification of livestock.
• Domestic movement reporting of livestock.

The changes align with the Cattle Implementation Plan developed by the Canadian beef industry in 2016.

The biggest adjustments for producers include:

• Obtain or keep current a premises identification number (PID) from a provincial government.
• Include a PID when purchasing CCIA-approved tags.
• Report information related to identification of cattle and their movement.
• Report move-ins within seven days.

“The proposed regulations do contain a permission that if a producer does not have a PID (premises identification) … that they can report all the necessary PID associated information, such as the legal land description, contact info, etc., when movements of herd (occur) or tags are purchased,” Scott said.

In Saskatchewan, PIDs have been required by the provincial government since 2017, and origin and destination PIDs must be included on livestock manifests as of 2025.

The CCIA and the Saskatchewan Cattle Association developed a cheat sheet for understanding the incoming regulations that was shared during the SCA’s recent annual general meeting.

According to that document, reporting requirements vary for producers, transporters, feedlots and auction marts, but most of the onus is on producers.

They must report move-ins to their sites, community pastures, vet clinics, cattle shows and exhibitions, although the requirements of each move-in varies slightly.

For yard move-ins, producers would be required to report the PID of the departure and arrival sites, the date and time of cattle departure and arrival, individual tag numbers of arriving cattle and the license plate number, including province, territory or state of the truck that delivered the animals.

It’s the same for community pastures, except instead of individual tag numbers, producers must report the number of head being moved. Reports of both departure and return are required.

A few more steps are required for veterinary clinics and cattle shows, including the date and time when the cattle left the departure site and when they returned and time of arrival to the clinic or show, and when they leave.

Auction marts are required to report the move-in, but the transporter or producer is required to provide information such as departure PID, date and timethe cattle departed and license plate information.

Auction marts will not need to report individual tag numbers, but feedlots will.

Scott didn’t answer any specific questions from the floor and advised producers to ask the SCA to forward their questions to the CFIA or contact the agency directly via email.

Preparation

To prepare for incoming regulations, Scott recommends producers be proactive to help ease the transition to compliance. They can do this by:

• Obtaining a PID through the provincial government.
• Updating contact information for their PID.
• Familiarizing themselves with the Canadian Livestock Tracking System (CLTS) for online reporting and how it can be integrated with a private herd management program if one is already in use.
• Attending information sessions about the regulations hosted by tahe CCIA or producer organizations.
• Beginning to record movement events in the CLTS.

“In the CLTS Resource Centre, you will find those step-by-step guides and instructions that will make using the CLTS easier,” Scott said.

She said the CLTS is the easiest way to report movements to the CCIA by using the web portal or mobile app, uploading an Excel file or using the web services, which is the best option for software providers and high-volume reporters.

The CLTS also works offline, allowing producers to enter their information and save it to upload when they have access to wifi or cellular data.

A less preferred option, though still accepted, is sending tracking information via mail.

“It wouldn’t be our preference if everybody submitted a paper record,” Scott said.

“We still take them, and when we receive them, we will reach out to that client and we’ll confirm the information. We do enter it in the system on their behalf.”

She said the CCIA has updated the CLTS in an effort to ease reporting and ensure compliance. Certain fields were added, such as arrival date and time, as well as a movement reporting module, both of which are optional right now but will be mandatory when the CFIA regulations take effect.

“The movement record is an alternative reporting option, primarily when the departure site chooses to initiate the process,” Scott said.

“The preexisting movement event in the CLTS is a recommended method and allows the destination site to report movements.”

Producers at the conference voiced concerns that producers don’t know enough about the CLTS and aren’t using it.

Scott assured the audience that the system and its uses would be better explained in the coming year.

She said the focus last year was on educating dealers, while in 2026 the CCIA will concentrate on producers and auction marts.

This will include explanatory videos and training sessions if producers and industry groups are interested in helping organize them.

However, changes to the regulations are still to come, and no one is quite sure what to expect.

“Based on everything being paused right now, we could see further changes,” Scott said.

“The information shared is just what was readily available from CFIA after industry consultation.”

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“We are extremely disappointed by PMRA’s decision and ask them to reconsider this decision,” David Marit, Saskatchewan’s agriculture minister, said in a news release.

“We need a federal regulatory system that considers economic impacts felt by producers and the realities on the ground.”

Alberta’s Agriculture Minister RJ Sigurdson, in a separate statement, said he’s also “deeply disappointed” in the PMRA’s decision and called on the PMRA to reinstate the product’s use for farmers.

The annual risk to hay and native pastures from RGS runs above $800 million and “the risk of this exploding RGS population is detrimental to farms and ranches across the country,” he said.

On Oct. 1, 2025, Saskatchewan Agriculture partnered with Alberta Agriculture and Irrigation to submit an emergency use request for two per cent liquid strychnine for management of RGS.

The rodent has been growing in population for the last few years and has shown no sign of slowing down.

The submission was a response to concerns from producers and industry about the on-farm efficacy of other registered products for the control of the pest, following the ban of strychnine in March 2023.

Heath MacDonald, federal agriculture minister, had made a verbal promise to the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities in October to support any emergency use applications. The PMRA, however, is not under the jurisdiction of the agriculture ministry.

The Saskatchewan government said it had included “robust, science-based and strengthened mitigation measures” in its proposal.

However, the PMRA said the methods used to prove necessity of strychnine were insuffient to mitigate an acceptable level of risk, which prompted the denial of emergency use.

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The company skipped a few generations from its previous T50 model to address the specific needs of western Canadian farmers.

‘We went straight to the biggest drum. The reason for this is because Canada is unlike any other country, where we have a majority of our land here is all flat. It’s big, open and flat. Of course, we do have a lot of hilly coulees, and B.C. has orchards or small, irregular shaped fields,” said Loren Ginn, area development manger for Sky Drones Inc., a distributor of DJI Agriculture.

Equipped with a 100-litre tank, the drone supports workloads for spraying and granular spreading (150-litre capacity) and has a lift system with a stabilizer, capable of carrying an 80-kilogram payload. Its maximum capability is covering 82 acres per hour, travelling at 72 km/h.

“A lot of the pasture guys, they like to seed their alfalfa, or if they’re going to put down grass seed, you can get to an area with the drone that tractors and other pieces of equipment might struggle a little bit with,” said Ginn.

The drone’s speed should be slowed depending on what it’s being used for, he added.

For spreading, the T100 has a built-in auger system that helps in slightly rainy conditions by helping break up the fertilizer.

The auger system ensures more consistent and efficient granular spreading by mechanically processing the fertilizer before dispersal. This means that even if the fertilizer is slightly clumpy or damp, the auger can still effectively distribute it across the field.

Sky Drones recommends a speed of 30 km per hour, which is still 60 to 70 acres per hour to maximize efficiency and cut down on spray shadowing.

Spraying crops such as corn or potatoes that have a lot of foliage will require slower speeds to get the product underneath the canopy.

The drone can travel faster on cereals and pasture because they do not need as much fumigation.

“Everyone has seen planes and crop dusters, but they have booms that go straight up,” Ginn said.

The way these drones work is rather than having booms that go out and then fall in a straight line, they have atomized sprinklers on either side of the drone. So that way it’s able to spread it out, then it relies on the down wash off of the drone to push it into the canopy.”

The drone has a regular 13-metre spray width, he said.

Ginn said producers are often intimidated by drones, afraid they are not going to be able to operate them properly.

However, he said artificial general intelligence software means operators rarely have to fly the drone manually, as long as they know how to make maps, which is part of the company’s training.

Sky Drones conducts demonstrations similar to what it did at Riverview Ranch during the Innovation on the Range field day.

“We want (producers) to actually use it and make their money back year after year from each drone. There’s not much point in us selling them if people don’t use them and understand how they work.”

Non-recreational drones can be a pricey proposition, but funding is available for agriculture producers through the On-Farm Efficiency Program, said Sonja Shank, program co-ordinator for the Agricultural Research and Extension Council of Alberta.

It is a 50-50 cost share up to $150,000.

Along with drones used for secondary purposes such as agriculture, the program also covers cameras in imaging/mapping drones and the first year of subscription fees for technology.

According to the Alberta government’s web page for the program, applications for the program are closed for 2025 and will re-open in April .

“Keep these things in mind when you go into the fall and start planning,” Shank said.

“There are a lot of these little funding pieces out there that not everybody knows about. And if you’re in the know, you’re in the know.”

Innovation on the Range was organized by the Chinook Applied Research Association.

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A new course by the Canadian Forage and Grassland Association delves into all these components and more.

“The High-Performance Forage course will be available early in 2026 to producers, agronomists and technical teams interested in improving the quality of Canadian forage available for market both domestically and internationally,” according to Kaylee Healy, the CFGA’s communications and knowledge technology transfer logistics manager.

The course covers a range of topics designed to give participants in-depth knowledge on the different aspects of growing high-performance forage across Canada, including examining regional challenges.

READ MORE:

• Grow forages, starve weeds
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This 12-module course is designed for producers who are already growing forage and who are ready to take their product to the next level to take advantage of existing and new markets. Participants can expect to walk away with an in-depth understanding of forage production and practical next steps to improve the quality of forage produced by their operations.

The course is being developed with the help of forage specialist Dan Undersander from the University of Wisconsin, who brings knowledge of more than five decades of advancing forage production.

His expertise spans all aspects of forage management, including production and harvesting methods for hay, haylage, baleage and silage, as well as forage analysis and grazing. His work is supported by other subject matter experts from across Canada and the United States.

“We’ve been building this information for the last three years with Dr. Undersander,” Healy said.

“It’s building on a series of workshops held back in the early 2000s. They were in-person workshops geared towards agronomists and technical experts in forage to help develop higher-quality forage across Canada.”

What’s in the course?

The course takes a ground-up approach, starting with planning growing systems, defining the rations and yield potential. Planning the system helps identify goals, determine labour and management costs and determine crop goals. It is the foundation for the rest of the course and includes elements to help producers track and assess performance.

It’s important to understand the seed mix, including seed genetics, which will grow best in a producer’s region based on climate, soil fertility and other growing conditions.

The module also looks at seeding rates and seeding strategies.

Fertility is an important component of growing quality forage. It begins with understanding the nutrients and density required to match the seed selection made.

Emphasis on soil testing illustrates the need to understand soil pH and existing nutrients, plus soil additives including nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, sulphur, calcium and magnesium. This module also explores the use of liquid and solid manure and touches on the impact of salinity.

Seed management looks at different tillage systems designed to facilitate proper seed placement and other seedbed preparation considerations, while weed control covers topics such as assessing weed pressures and challenges. It specifically looks at when weeds cause a problem, how to manage weeds through pre-seeding and post-seeding, mechanical needs for weed control and when spraying may be required.

Disease and pest management dives into understanding the pressures that these problems place on crops. The module looks at how to identify problems and manage them.

The course offers a diverse look at harvesting and harvest systems, beginning with targeted harvesting time. This is a natural segue into matching forage quality to animal requirements and targeting moisture levels at harvest.

The harvest module also looks at minimizing field losses, selecting the best mower for your operation, the use of conditioning systems, racking, preservation and making baleage.

Making forage is only part of the equation. The course also features modules on storage including packing density, bunk filling rates and other storage considerations to minimize loss.

Producers feeding out forage will appreciate the module on feed-out management, which touches on topics such as maintaining a fresh bunk face, designing storage systems and engaging a nutritionist. It closes with tracking forage quality and building rations.

As the course winds down, participants will gain a better understanding of tracking and performance, including what records to keep, why producers should keep them and how to inventory quantity and quality in storage.

The initial plan, the tracking and the records help producers better understand the cost of production for an operation. Producers walk away from training with a template to develop the cost of production for their own operation, looking at the cost of harvest and storage losses and the overall cost of forage production.

The course closes with discussion on sustainable management, greenhouse gas impacts and management strategies to help producers with soil carbon sequestering and determining manure storage and application methods for their operations.

Producers will complete training with a plan on how they can improve the quality of forage they produce.

“The course presents information using a combination of written and video materials and provides resources and action items so producers can take the techniques and strategies outlined in the material and apply them to their farm,” Healy said.

Why now?

The CFGA has been working with Undersander and other experts for several years to create this training series based on the demand from producers and extension specialists to improve the quality of forage produced in Canada. It has been long recognized that forages are essential to maintaining the health of cropping systems in addition to being an important crop on its own.

Growers face a number of challenges regionally, including disease, pests, drought, excessive moisture and varying rates of soil fertility.

A pilot three-day workshop offered this past March in Manitoba underlined the desire for knowledge and the need to build new supports and connections for growers.

“With experts planning retirement or moving into other roles, the CFGA recognized the opportunity to capture this knowledge now and assist with transferring it to the next generation of producers, agronomists and technicians who are looking to improve Canadian forage,” Healy said.

“This free online course will be available through the CFGA’s learning management system in both English and French early in 2026.”

The new High-Performance Forage course joins other online educational opportunities provided by the CFGA, including Advanced Grazing Systems with sub-courses on dairy and brown soil zones.

The post New high-performance forage training program to launch in 2026 appeared first on Grainews.

Now when I talk about sheep, I will explain the perspectives with particular regard to Canada. The 8,000 square miles of Wales would fit into each of the three Prairie provinces about 32 times — Alberta is 255,000 square miles, and each of the other provinces is just a little less than that in size.

Wales has essentially a mild, wet climate modified by the Gulf Stream of the Atlantic, allowing farm animals to graze from March until December. The rainfall varies from 30 to 40 inches annually on the coastal areas with up to 150 inches just a few miles inland.

Wales today has a peak sheep population of around 10 million, counting both mature sheep and lambs. This conveniently works out to 2,000 sheep from March to October on each acre of the Welsh landscape. Let’s not forget the other livestock, particularly cattle, numbering more than one million, and horses, at 60,000 or more. That means 2,500 sheep per section or an average of eight sheep per useable acre. That number per acre could vary from four to 12 or more. Remember, over winter the sheep herd, primarily older ewes, from November to March drops down to just more than four million animals. Each early spring from March onward, each ewe averages 1.5 lambs per adult animal.

In the rest of the U.K. — England, Scotland and Northern Ireland — there are about another 12 million sheep. Canada, on the other hand has only around 830,000 sheep, primarily in Ontario, Quebec and Alberta. Some 550,000 lambs and some sheep are processed for meat in provincially inspected establishments annually. Canada exports and imports sheep and lambs, but imports are by far the most, at around 28,000 tons of lamb and mutton valued at $347 million. Farm cash receipts in Canada for lamb and sheep total $224 million or 0.2 per cent of total farm cash receipts.

Most lamb imports into Canada come from Australia and New Zealand, which have some 75 million and 25 million sheep respectively. These numbers, though, are dwarfed by China’s 175 million sheep, giving that country 14 per cent of the world’s sheep population.

Demand for lamb in Canada is high, but it’s often unavailable in the big box stores. On the other hand, the potential for increasing Canada’s sheep herds is high, but I suspect some prejudice exists for nonspecific reasons. Canadian winters may be cold, but most sheep breeds are ideally suited for our cold weather. And if coyotes are cited as problems, how come Australia can manage its sheep-killing dingoes?

There are more than 200 recognized breeds of sheep, with perhaps some 10,000 distinct types, all the way from dual-purpose wool type to wool-free sheep to milk-producing sheep.

Milk sheep, very common in Europe, are unusual in that some lines can produce three to six lambs at one time. Milk production runs from 170 to 240 U.S. gallons (600-900 litres) in a milking interval (year). Much of this milk is made into up to 70 or more cheeses, perhaps the most familiar in Canada being the sharp-tasting blue French Roquefort.

Lamb as a prime-time meal centrepiece worldwide competes very well with quality beef, particularly on European tables. As with the meat from specialized beef-producing animals such as Kobe from Wagyu cattle, prime lamb roast has its own unique types. Where I grew up in Wales, we farmed on the edge of a huge estuary, second only to the Bay of Fundy in Canada. This estuary had some 5,000 acres of grass-covered salt marsh, traditionally grazed by sheep, horses and cattle. These grass salt marshes are periodically flooded many times a year by the incoming tides which in spring can rise as much as 32 feet. Sheep eating these very saline-tolerant grasses develop a distinctive meat, which, up until not so many years ago, was poorly regarded as off-flavoured. In today’s world, this lamb meat is now very highly regarded by the best of British restaurants as salt marsh lamb. The lamb meat from the salt marsh’s 5,000 acres is sold for up to three times the price of regular farm lamb — a prime example of a niche market.

Affluent consumers seem to be always ready for an unusual food experience. Remember, the world’s best coffee is made from coffee beans that have been previously eaten by wild jungle catlike creatures (civets) in Indonesia. Look it up if it sounds unbelievable.

A secure perimeter

I believe there’s a lot of room for sheep farming in Canada, particularly on the Prairies. Until recently I kept around eight Shetland sheep for 15 years at my acreage. I fenced the outer part of the acreage with four-foot sheep fencing on top of four-foot sheep fencing so it was eight feet tall and essentially coyote-, deer- and moose-proof. The sheep were kept on an acre of land that was a mass of poplar roots, suckers and weeds. After five years all the poplars and weeds were killed off and replaced with a lawn grass mixture that I periodically seeded over this area. Within a few years this was an acre of good grazing land. I have always had a couple of energetic border collies within the acreage, and coyotes or foxes have never been a problem, despite having a few free-ranging chickens.

Back in 2010 on my five acres, next to my sheep pen, I came across the fully eaten remains of a large male white-tail deer. This happened in March, in deep snow that year. It appeared a cougar had chased a deer that jumped the eight-foot fence at the bottom end of my property, consuming the deer over many days and totally ignoring the sheep in the nearby pen enclosed only by four-foot fencing. Perhaps the cougar had an aversion to mutton or was discouraged by my border collie patrol.

So, if Wales can raise 10 million sheep on 8,000 sections, why can the Prairies, 100 times larger in area, only raise around 300,000 sheep? The demand for lamb is there, either for domestic or export purposes. As we say, I am not pulling the “wool” over your eyes.

Do not be hung up, so to speak, by so-called feuds between cattle ranchers and sheep herders. I have many times heard the word “pasture maggots” together with contemptuous descriptions about the taste of lamb. Old mutton may not be the best of meats, but there are many in this country who relish moose, deer, bear, ducks and geese, regardless of age or quality. Try Canadian prime lamb chops, Indian lamb curry or Italian/Greek prepared lamb. You just might like it.

The post Why not a Prairie sheep sector? appeared first on Grainews.

From Aug. 11-15, I took the boys and Anna into Wilkie for Vacation Bible School. I was teaching the faith section, and little Anna was my helper. The kids all had fun, and I enjoyed getting to share the faith with kids of different backgrounds and knowledge levels.

Gregory started cutting the hay in the Landis ditch on Aug. 12. After Vacation Bible School we would rush home to see what Gregory might need and then head to the garden to see what we could accomplish there.

On Aug. 16, we loaded up the kids and headed to Unity for the Reiniger family reunion. They haven’t had a reunion for more than 20 years, so while there were quite a few familiar faces for me, there were also many I had never met and quite a few that Gregory hadn’t met either.

They calculated that there were 579 descendants of John and Mary Reiniger, but a baby was born that weekend and happily bumped that number up to 580. It was a fun time with plenty of playtime for the kids and a good opportunity to visit with people we don’t see very often. On Aug. 17 we went to mass at Landis and then went back to Unity for brunch and some final visits before everyone went their way again.

On Aug. 18 we were blessed with a visit from “The Aunties.” My friends Michelle and Lacey made their annual trip to Canada to visit their godsons and the rest of the Eppichs. They were only able to stay a few days, but it was an action-packed three days. There was a lot of playing, garden work, crocheting, hiking and even a campfire in the backyard before they headed back on the morning of Aug. 21.

On Aug. 24 we took the opportunity to slow down a bit. After mass and brunch we took the kids out to the pasture to ride and check the cows and pastures. The boys are all getting to be better riders. Joseph is willing to take on new challenges, James is starting to ride on his own and Ian is balanced enough to sit in the saddle on his own while I lead his horse. In one pasture the cows were nowhere to be found, so James and I checked every bush and draw. Finally, we found them along the lake bank enjoying the breeze and the little bit of shade from the trees. We’ve now dubbed that pasture “hidden herd pasture.”

On Aug. 26 we took two balers and worked on the ditches toward Landis. We had a good day but didn’t quite get it all finished. Gregory had a friend come and help him a bit with a tractor the next morning, so we didn’t get out until the afternoon to try to finish baling. By that time, it was too dry and we had to quit and come back the next morning.

The next morning things were working better for the hay, but the balers were not co-operating. Gregory almost lost a tire on his baler. Luckily, he caught it in time to go home for parts and didn’t wreck the tire. Before he could get his baler fixed, my baler lost a chain. Once all the parts and pieces were gathered together, we worked together to get both balers going again. Before long we had all the ditch hay baled for 2025.

We drove the balers home, and then Gregory went to start swathing the organic barley. And just like that, harvest was here! Gregory worked on the barley and then swathed the sainfoin patch. It wasn’t good enough to harvest this year, so I baled it for feed. Gregory then moved right into the oats. He was trying to get the oats in a swath before the wind shelled it out. He’s quite happy with the crop that is there. He has to get the finishing touches done on the combines and the trucks before we can get to combining, but all will come together with time.

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It’s not particularly tuneful, and the lyrics will never be mistaken as profound or deep, but summertime anthems don’t care.

The chorus, “If there ever come a time I got rabies, you’re high on my bitin’ list,” has inspired viral videos themed around things people simply cannot stand. I tend to focus on the positives, but this twangy tune has prompted me to think about what would be high on my ranch biting list…

Coming in at number one is invasive weeds. Leafy spurge, downy brome, baby’s breath, absinthe, bindweed, chamomile — the list goes on and on. The threat of invasives can be regional and specific, but also general and widespread.

They’ll infest rangeland, pastures and waterways whether they’re well-managed or not. You can take great pains on your property to prevent and contain weeds, yet wind, water, feed, wildlife, livestock, equipment and other vectors can provide a direct pathway for these detestable plants to infiltrate your land. As a producer, volunteer and (back-in-the-day) professional, I’ve spent way too much time and money scheming, mapping and spraying these plants.

Gophers may be part of the everyday environment, but around here we’ve experienced them in plague-like proportions for about seven years out of the past two decades. This has prompted me to catalogue them on the naughty list.

Speaking of biting, they munch our pastures, hay and annual crops, and they once gnawed the buds out of my new tree saplings. They dig down beside the foundations of our buildings, excavate my garden and build a dangerous network of tunnels, making it almost impossible to ride a horse or drive a pickup across some pastures. The only time I cheered with delight at their antics was when a gopher dined on my newly planted larkspur — the joke was on them, because larkspur is poisonous.

A grasshopper invasion is another thing to index. While they haven’t bothered us as badly this year as they have in the past, I have a very recent recollection of them eating our annual and perennial crops, stripping the tree leaves and even devouring Canada thistle and sagebrush. I have a lot of sympathy for producers who are still fighting the good fight against hoppers. Their damage is swift, whether it’s targeted at seedlings, well-established crops or those ready for harvest.

Last but not least, I’m listing raccoons. They’re cagey, a tiny bit cute and wildly destructive. They’re nimble and bolder than brass. Ironically, raccoons can transmit rabies, so they are more likely to bite me than the other way around. On one of our first dates, my husband introduced me to tactical raccoon management. He spotted a few of the wily wildlife barricaded inside an old building and quickly deployed me as backup.

Twenty-five years later, we’re still collaborating to keep the critters from setting up camp on our ranch. I wonder if our relationship would have flourished if I hadn’t passed the raccoon removal test decades earlier?

Every ranch endures challenges that make us foam at the mouth more than others. To a certain extent, some, like invasive weeds or pesty raccoons, can be managed with proactive prevention. Others, like gopher and grasshopper infestations, are largely out of our control. Even so, our reaction to handling those troubles can be mastered. When things get biting, a positive attitude might be the most effective antidote.

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