Reading Time: 2 minutes Buffalo beans adorn the pastures, field edges and even kitchen tables of many Prairie farms and ranches — but the pretty plant is now also being picked for its potential properties as a cancer fighter. Experiments show compounds extracted from buffalo bean leaves have potential to fight a class of cancers that includes multiple myeloma, […] Read more
Guenther: Buffalo bean more than floral for cancer researchers
Building a career in the grain industry, from the pavement up
Is Charlene Bradley a template for a new generation of farmers?
Reading Time: 6 minutes Working in the grain industry had seemed an unlikely choice for Charlene Bradley. “If someone had said to me in Grade 12 that I’d be living on a farm and managing a grain elevator,” she now says, “I would’ve looked at them like they had three heads.” After all, growing up in Edmonton didn’t provide […] Read more
Guenther (video): Northwestern Sask. fire hazard looms over farms
Reading Time: 4 minutes Judy Wilkinson was planting potatoes on Thursday when she had a bad feeling: the dry weather was just right for a fire. “It’s scary out there. The buffalo don’t want to eat hay anymore,” said Wilkinson, who with her husband Kevin raises bison on the forest’s edge near Turtle Lake, Sask. “They’re on the move, […] Read more
Guenther: Alta. cutworms sought for mapping, posterity
Reading Time: 2 minutes If you’re an Alberta farmer and your crops have got cutworms, Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development wants to know. Scott Meers, an entomologist with Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development, is asking farmers to report cutworms online. The province uses those reports to create an interactive map displaying cutworm sightings. Meers and provincial insect research technologist […] Read more
Guenther: Reseeding already considered in parts of Sask.
Reading Time: 2 minutes While farmers in northwestern Saskatchewan are getting seed into the ground, warm weather tops their wish lists. Frost is “going to be our biggest enemy here, coming up this weekend, I think,” said Geoff Schick, assistant location manager for AgriTeam Services at Glaslyn, Sask., about 65 km north of North Battleford. As of Friday, weekend […] Read more
Crop tour in Russia, Ukraine finds mid-sized farms under pressure
Reading Time: 3 minutes Conflict in Ukraine has left the country’s farmers in a tight spot, as they’ve told agronomist Mike Lee. Lee, who grew up in the U.K. but has managed large farms in Ukraine and worked in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Russia, traveled 5,000 km through Ukraine and Russia in late March, evaluating winter crops and talking to farmers. […] Read more
Guenther: Farmers keep minority stake in CWB, for now
Reading Time: 3 minutes While G3 Global Grain Group is set to scoop a majority stake in CWB, grain farmers will be able to hold onto some equity in the former Canadian Wheat Board over the next seven years at the least. G3 is a new joint venture between Bunge Canada and Saudi Agricultural and Livestock Investment (SALIC) Canada, […] Read more
A new venture
If you want to talk diversification in Canadian farming, you’ve got to talk Hutterite. Fortunately, it’s a topic Paul Wipf is proud to discuss
Reading Time: 7 minutes Paul Wipf is a Hutterite ambassador of sorts. He has talked about life on Hutterite colonies at Alberta farm shows, he speaks openly to reporters, and he puts time and effort into helping the general public see what it means to be Hutterite. Wipf is also the farm steward — he doesn’t like the title […] Read more
From farm to seed company
Can the succession process at Simpson Seeds help your farm keep growing through the transition years?
Reading Time: 5 minutes Greg Simpson and his two brothers have already been through succession planning once. Almost 40 years ago, Greg’s father successfully transitioned the family farm to the three brothers. He also helped them set up Simpson Seeds, telling Greg “You know I’ll be here to backstop you, but I want you to have the reins.” Today […] Read more
Look north for fruits and vegetables
These Saskatchewan farm projects are winning converts in some surprising places
Reading Time: 6 minutes The northern village of Cumberland House seems an unlikely place to find a farm or a farmer. For starters, it’s remote — 450 kilometres north east of Saskatoon at the end of Highway 123, a notoriously bad road that spring can turn into one long mud-hole. The village, established by the Hudson Bay Company in […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
