In early December, the Saskatchewan River was at its second lowest level in the past 23 years.   Photo: Alex McCuaig

Alberta expands livestock drought recovery supports

Only a narrow band of the province remains exempt from the aid program

The 2023 Canada-Alberta Drought Livestock Assistance initiative, funded through the AgriRecovery framework by the federal and provincial governments, offers payments of up to $150 per head to livestock producers who have 15 or more animals per type of livestock, and have altered usual grazing practices for more than 21 days due to drought.





brussels sprouts

Vegetable crop production on the Prairies

Part 2 of a series on Prairie farm gardens

At the countless farm sites I have visited over almost 50 years from coast to coast in Canada, from Newfoundland to Vancouver Island, I have come across outstanding crop growing innovations and excellent crops as well as abject crop failures. To deal logically with the extensive range of crops, I put them, as described previously, […] Read more

les henry's soil moisture map 2023

A new year, a new soil moisture map

Let's take a Prairie-wide view of soil moisture at freeze-up in 2023

To make a soil moisture map, you need to understand the soil moisture constants: saturation, field capacity, wilting point and plant-available water. Saturation (Sat) is when all soil pores are filled with water — in other words, the water table. Until recently we did not consider the water table to be high enough to provide […] Read more


Photo: Thinkstock

Sask. canola, flax groups vote to merge

SaskCanola and SaskFlax have been sharing offices, admin for about a year

Producer support for the merge of SaskCanola and SaskFlax was "overwhelming," the groups said in a Jan. 10 news release. The organizations held a joint annual general meeting to share results of member feedback before taking the issue to a vote. The vote passed with "widespread approval," the release said.




New corn hybrids for 2024

Twenty-two new offerings for Prairie farmers There are lots of new choices for corn growers in Western Canada for the next growing season, with 22 new grain and silage hybrids in the offing from BrettYoung, Corteva’s Pioneer Seeds, Dekalb, DLF Pickseed, Maizex, NorthStar Genetics, Proven Seed and Thunder Seed. The following list includes only brand […] Read more