A couple things to ramble on about….. First, I was shaking my head the other day over a recent event at the Alberta College of Art and Design in Calgary. In April, one of the art students thought it would be cool to kill and pluck a chicken in the school cafeteria as part of a […] Read more
IT ALL STARTED WITH THE DEATH OF A CHICKEN
“One-day rancher” has completed his shift
There I was this past weekend being the “One Day a Year Rancher” at my brother-in-law’s place at Fort Steele in southeastern B.C. It was the annual weekend to process the cows and calves at Kootenay River Ranch before they head out to pasture, hopefully sometime in the next week or so. They had a […] Read more
Farming is farming whether it’s catfish or canola
And I thought the debate over the Canadian Wheat Board was deep. I have been getting emails lately from Gavin Gibbons of the National Fisheries Institute, which represents many fish companies in the United States and it is all about a pending decision on whether to eliminate the U.S. Catfish Inspection Program. Now, obviously they […] Read more
Another tale about a horse named Chester
Cecil Orr of Sifton, Manitoba also had a horse named Chester at one time. Cecil called me after he read a column I wrote in Grainews in February about a horse named Chester that I had back in the late 70s. Mine wasn’t much of a tale, other than I owned Chester, rode him for […] Read more
Farmers mixing more herbicide cocktails
For effectiveness and to reduce the risk of herbicide resistance more farmers are using herbicide blends against weeds
What’s your weed-of-choice these days? That answer seems to be a moving target not only across Western Canada but on individual farms. Farmers interviewed for the Farmer Panel say one weed seems to be a problem for a while — they get that dealt with and then other species come along to pose a challenge […] Read moreUNCRATING THE HOG INDUSTRY
I read recently that Calgary Co-op food retail chain, then national hog processor Olymel, and mostly recently Tim Horton’s restaurants are among the latest companies to make it known that hog producers have to change their production practices. These companies, and others have set deadlines where they will no longer accept pork from operations using […] Read more
Alberta grain farmer named regional Outstanding Young Farmer
Well there was no “white smoke” coming out of the chimney of the Legion Hall in Olds last week, but Alberta does have a new top farmer for 2013. Grain farmers Michael Kalisvaart and his wife Karen Jansen and family who farm at Gibbons, just northeast of Edmonton, were named Alberta regional Outstanding Young Farmers […] Read more
One of the “oldtimers” in organics
Charlie Lasser was organic before it was even cool. The Chetwynd, B.C. rancher has had a closed beef herd for 45 years, he has never used fertilizers and chemicals on the ranch. He called the other day looking for information on another matter, but was also able to fill me in a bit on his […] Read more
We spare no expense to bring you ‘the news’
One of my assignments this winter was to find a beef animal in Arizona. I know it sounds crazy since there are probably a couple of hundred head right here in Western Canada. But, NO, the editor and maybe even the editorial director and publisher insisted that I find and photograph a beef animal in […] Read more
How to be a wealthy farmer
What is your farmland worth? Alberta farmer, entrepreneur, and author Bruno Wiskel says in his new book The Wealthy Farmer that Canadian farmers may be sitting on a gold mine and not even know it. Wiskel has just published his sixth book, The Wealthy Farmer — The Complete Guide to Investing in Agricultural Land, an easy-to-read […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
