Aerial shot of the Gray farm. PHOTO: WSA

Turning excess water into an asset with consolidation drainage

Farmers in the “prairie pothole” region are using its natural storage capacity to their advantage

After heavy rains flooded his yard, a Saskatchewan farmer turned to a consolidation drainage and irrigation project to better manage water on his land. Here’s how it works — and how the WSA and funding help make it happen.



Photo: Jun Zhang/Getty Images Plus

Prairie forecast: Looks like summer weather

Highlights: We appear to be in a fairly predictable weather pattern as the overall weather picture has been pretty good. We saw upper-level ridging last week bring average to above average temperatures across the Prairies. The forecasted area of low pressure over the eastern Prairies materialized as forecasted. As often typical with upper-level lows, the […] Read more



The WA-14, built by FWD Wagner for John Deere was produced from 1968 to 1970

A look back at John Deere’s WA-14 tractor

What was it like for a farmer to use one of those rare machines in the field?

Machinery editor Scott Garvey travels to a southeastern Saskatchewan farm to check out a rare piece of tractor history: the WA-14, which Oregon manufacturer FWD Wagner built for John Deere in the late 1960s.



Photo: ShaunL/Getty Images Plus

Prairie forecast: Summer holds on

Once again, the weather models did a good job with the last forecast. It correctly predicted the cool weather pattern over the eastern Prairies, which did bring some light scattered frosts late last week. It also was correct about the return of warm temperatures to start this week. Meanwhile, the western Prairies saw plenty of […] Read more



Photo: Wirestock/Getty Images Plus

Prairie forecast: Cool east, warm west

Forecast issued September 3, covering Sept. 3 to 10, 2025

We start this period with a large upper low over northern Ontario, an area of Arctic high pressure building southwards over Manitoba and strong but narrow upper ridge of high pressure over B.C. This particular setup is going to bring cool temperatures over the eastern Prairies for the next several days. Western regions will stay on the mild side.