(Photo courtesy Canada Beef Inc.)

Tax deferrals kick in for soaked and parched West

Ranchers under pressure from this year’s drought in B.C. and northwestern Alberta and excess moisture in western Manitoba and eastern Saskatchewan may get income tax deferrals for their trouble. The federal government on Tuesday released its first list of designated areas for 2014, within which eligible producers who sold breeding livestock may be allowed to […] Read more

tilled rows in a field

Tillage: not always a dirty word

Moisture cycles change over time. It’s not a crime for soil management practices to change too

When soil-incorporated herbicides were all the rage, tillage was the main operation on many farms. For some granular soil-applied herbicides, the recommendation was to cultivate several inches deep at high speed and to go over it twice at right angles. In the best black soils it was not uncommon to hear farmers say they had […] Read more


Major storm hits drought-stricken California

San Francisco | Reuters — A Pacific storm lashed drought-parched northern and central California on Thursday with heavy rain and high winds, knocking out power to tens of thousands of homes, disrupting flights, washing out roads and prompting school closures in the Bay Area. Nearly 240 departing and incoming commercial flights had been canceled at […] Read more



We need a little global warming

Climate has been changing for the last 
four billion years. Long-term weather 
forecasts are anyone’s guess

On Sunday, January 5, I went out mid-morning to get a shot of fresh air — and it was fresh. The mercury thermometer on the garage stops at 40 below, which we all understand. The mercury was nearly curled up in the bottom: -37 C. Much of Canada and the northern U.S. has experienced a […] Read more