Fair weather gets Sask. producers back in the field, crops 91 per cent harvested

Fair weather gets Sask. producers back in the field, crops 91 per cent harvested

Saskatchewan Crop Report for the week ending October 12

Warm and relatively dry weather earlier in the week allowed many producers to return to the field. Ninety-one per cent of the 2015 crop is now combined, up from 84 per cent last week. The five-year (2010-2014) average for this time of year is 93 per cent combined, according to Saskatchewan Agriculture’s weekly Crop Report. […] Read more




(Dave Bedard photo)

Liberals, NDP say would clarify foreign takeover rules

Winnipeg | Reuters –– Canada’s Liberal and New Democratic parties, vying to replace the governing Conservatives in a tight three-way election race, both say they would clarify rules around foreign corporate takeovers if they win. Liberal leader Justin Trudeau, campaigning in Winnipeg on Tuesday, said foreign investors need clearer rules around takeovers. “(Conservative Prime Minister […] Read more


(Photo courtesy Canada Beef Inc.)

Klassen: Feeder cattle market remains under pressure

Western Canadian feeder cattle prices traded $3 to $7 lower in comparison to week-ago levels as the market continues to digest the weaker fed market and softer wholesale beef values. Feedlot operators were more cautious, realizing the current prices don’t pencil profitably, while the deferred live cattle futures dropped like a power window. Financial risk […] Read more

(Photo courtesy Canada Beef Inc.)

U.S. livestock: CME live cattle mostly firm after choppy day

Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Mercantile Exchange live cattle futures finished mostly firm on Monday after a volatile session stirred by bear spreading as investors sold the October contract and bought deferred months, traders said. They added that negative market fundamentals and anticipation of possible deliveries next Monday (Oct. 5) contributed to active bear spreading. […] Read more


Dry product spreaders built by New Leader are capable of much more accurate spread patterns than older, PTO driven models could ever achieve.

New Leader demos a broadcast spreader

Technology has caught up with dry product spreaders, resulting in much better spread patterns

In past years, the uses for dry-product broadcast spreaders have declined. Aside from forage growers, most producers have turned to more targeted fertilizer placement alternatives. But with the introduction of slow-release nitrogen products and the difficulty of handling large amounts of fertilizer in the short spring seeding season, many are re-examining their placement alternatives. So broadcast […] Read more

Culicoides sonorensis. (Scott Bauer photo courtesy ARS/USDA)

Livestock seen threatened as biting insects press north

Bluetongue’s most recent appearance in the Canadian cattle herd may be a taste of what’s to come as insect species expand northward, a new study warns. Anna Zuliani, previously a graduate student in veterinary medicine at the University of Calgary (UCVM), recently published a paper on how geographical distribution of biting midges relates to the […] Read more


(UoGuelph.ca/Alfred)

Guelph animal science department rebrands

The Ontario Agricultural College’s department of animal and poultry science has hatched a new name meant to better take in the scope of its work. The new name, the Department of Animal Biosciences, “helps describe the department’s evolution from a livestock husbandry department in the 1870s to the highly dynamic and integrated department it is […] Read more

(Stephen Ausmus photo courtesy ARS/USDA)

Sage grouse denied U.S. endangered species status

Commerce City, Colo. | Reuters –– A long-simmering debate in the U.S. West over an imperiled ground-dwelling bird reached a climax on Tuesday when the Obama administration announced it was denying Endangered Species Act protection to the greater sage grouse. U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell touted the decision as a success enabled by a sweeping […] Read more