Reading Time: 3 minutes Edmonton — Don’t know if your local elevator is offering a good price or not? There’s an app for that. Or at least there will be once www.pdqinfo.ca is fully up and running. The new website, created by the Alberta Wheat Commission with $742,725 in federal funding, aims to give farmers timely and accurate pricing […] Read more
New website to shed light on grain prices
Alta. cattle vet helps vet in Ukraine with video bid for Easi-Scan contest prize
Portable ultrasound unit would make life easier for this Eastern European social media savvy vet team
Reading Time: < 1 minute Even though he doesn’t speak a word of Ukrainian, Airdrie vet Cody Creelman, was drawn to the online videos of Vadim Pryadko, who lives in a town called Khmelnitsky near the Polish border. “We developed a relationship,” said Creelman. “We started talking about what type of practice he was at, what kind of school he […] Read more
Pigeon fever arrives in southern Alberta horses
Reading Time: 3 minutes Southern Alberta horse owners are being advised to watch their animals for large lumps on their chests, following what are apparently the first-ever cases of pigeon fever in the province. Pigeon fever is a disease common in the southern States, said Dr. Connie Fancy, veterinarian with Claresholm Veterinary Services. This year, Fancy and three other […] Read more
Alta. researchers closing in on prions’ weak points
Reading Time: 2 minutes A decade after BSE rocked the Canadian cattle industry, two University of Alberta scientists and their Swiss colleagues have taken a major step towards finding a way to block prion infection which leads to BSE and scrapie. “My lab contributed how the antibodies interact with the various parts of the prion molecule,” said biochemistry professor […] Read more
Growers needed for Alta. pea root rot survey
Reading Time: 2 minutes If you’re an Alberta pea grower, you can help researchers learn more about fusarium root rot in peas by offering up your field for research. Traditionally, Red Deer and Lacombe have been the primary area for peas in the province, but things have changed in recent years — and about half of the pea acreage […] Read more
You can blame aster yellows on bad luck, but not blackleg
Reading Time: 4 minutes Hope for a cold winter this year to knock back aster yellows, loosen up your canola rotations to avoid blackleg, and pick your pulse cultivars with disease resistance in mind. Those were three key pieces of advice offered by plant pathologist Michael Harding at Alberta Pulse Growers’ recent meeting. Aster yellows have been stealing yield […] Read more
East-central Alta. watershed group takes aim at water quality issues
Reading Time: 2 minutes Water quality affects everyone, and that’s especially true in the Battle River watershed. "Unlike many other watersheds in Alberta that have headwaters in mountain regions, the Battle River watershed is Prairie fed and our headwaters are near 60 per cent of our population," said Sarah Skinner, watershed planning co-ordinator for the Battle River Watershed Alliance. […] Read more
Alberta growers want a provincial wheat commission
Reading Time: 2 minutes A group of Alberta farmers is pushing for the establishment of a provincial wheat commission, saying it could help unite wheat producers and drive more money into cereal research. “We see this as an opportunity to enhance grower profitability through research and market development,” said Greg Porozni, a grain producer from Willingdon who is a […] Read more
Agri-Trade: New tolerances in canola pipeline
Reading Time: 2 minutes Increased herbicide tolerance, sclerotinia tolerance and improved systems for hybrids are among the many canola innovations this year, said Phil Thomas, a senior agri-coach with Agri-Trend, a Canadian consulting company which tracks trends and helps producers. About $37 million were spent on the development of new canola varieties this year, said Thomas. Forty field trials […] Read more