carpal tunnel exercises

How to treat carpal tunnel at home

Fit to Farm: Symptoms begin when connective tissue compresses tendons and nerves in an already-busy area

Carpal tunnel is a condition that can affect anyone, anytime, though it’s especially common in those who work with their hands and do manual labour. The carpal tunnel is an anatomical term for the path the tendons in the forearm and wrist take underneath a bridge of connective tissue in the wrist moving into the […] Read more

beef carcasses

Beef demand made seasonal highs in July

The Markets: Cattle markets have started to grind lower, but the feeder market has held

The beef market appears to have made a seasonal high during the first week of July. Wholesale choice beef prices reached up to US$329/cwt during the week ending July 6 before fading to US$319/cwt during the third week of July. Weaker wholesale values have resulted in lower U.S. fed cattle values. During the first week […] Read more


wheat july 2024

Editor’s Rant: Bumper sticklers

Crop forecasting is a thankless job, but necessary

They were good calls at the time. Just a few weeks ago a clutch of farm writers from across Canada converged on Glacier FarmMedia’s Ag in Motion show west of Saskatoon. Some of those writers, myself included, drove past quite a lot of handsome crops en route. In some stretches, the usually blue watery mirages […] Read more

In the case of farmers such as Herb and Fred who have separate assets, there may be adverse tax consequences in transferring land from one to the other at book value.

Two brothers want to merge two farms, simplify ownership

Farm Financial Planner: Maximizing the proceeds from their estates for the benefit of charities will take some planning

In south-central Manitoba, two brothers who we’ll call Herb, 75 and Fred, 60, have farmed for more than 40 years. They’ve raised cattle and produced mixed grains. Neither has married and there are no children or other obvious heirs. In their four decades of farming the brothers have built up substantial off-farm assets. There’s enough non-registered […] Read more


File photo of cattle on feed near Champion, Alta., about 75 km north of Lethbridge. (James_Gabbert/iStock/Getty Images)

Tighter fed cattle supplies support feeder market

U.S. beef producers are not yet holding back enough heifers for expansion

During the first week of June, Alberta packers were buying fed cattle on a live basis at $261 per hundredweight, f.o.b, feedlot in southern Alberta, up $4/cwt from a month earlier. Market-ready supplies of fed cattle were sharply above year-ago levels earlier in winter, but the backlog has slowly been alleviated through the spring period. […] Read more

Les Henry.

Editor’s Rant: Thanks, Les

We begin with sad news for readers who haven’t already heard: Les Henry, a soil scientist and university professor dedicated to the improvement of Prairie farmland, and a mainstay in these pages for almost 50 years, left us on June 14 at age 83, ending a long fight with congestive heart failure. We can defer […] Read more


A canola crop in the RM of Fletts Springs, just northwest of the RM of Pleasantdale, in 2019.

Where the canola was: a history of Saskatchewan yields by soil climatic zone

Whether by nature, nurture or both, yields jumped in several zones around the turn of this century

Editor’s Note: Les Henry, the esteemed Prairie soil scientist and our longtime soils columnist, left us on June 14 at age 83. Up until the day before his passing, Les was working on and revising this column for the next (July 11) edition of Grainews. We’ll still have this on paper for you in a […] Read more

Keeping reference materials current for the farming community could help ward off weeds and pests before they become endemic.

Recognize the value of books, fact sheets, texts

Practical Research: Don’t assume that your phone will have all the answers at hand

During my long tenure with Alberta Agriculture we, as a crop protection unit, produced many farmer information presentations, fact sheets, books, booklets, broadcasts and seminars. From 2000 onward, Alberta Agriculture severely cut down on this and other farm information units. The books and fact sheets are fully relevant today but they need upgrading and maintenance, […] Read more


les henry

Soil scientist and Grainews columnist Les Henry, 1940-2024

Henry's outreach to farmers spanned more than half a century

Saskatchewan soil scientist Les Henry, well known for his work on improving Prairie farmland and his outreach to Prairie farmers in the pages of Grainews, has died. Ending a long fight with congestive heart failure, Henry died Friday in Saskatoon at age 83, having continued to write until very shortly before his passing. Born in […] Read more

Dry-roasting quinoa before cooking is necessary to remove the bitterness imparted by naturally-occurring saponins on the seeds’ exterior.

Brunching, part 2: Quinoa

First We Eat: Grain dishes can be augmented with various textures and flavours

Threshing, winnowing, drying. Those ancient words resonate with us, and for good reason. Humans have been harvesting grains to use for food by these timeless methods for millennia. Just think of wheat, barley, rice — and quinoa (pronounced keen wah). Quinoa, like amaranth, is not a grain, but a high-fibre pseudo-grain — an herb, in […] Read more