Reading Time: < 1 minute Country Guide reporter Lisa Guenther caught up with Sean McGrath of Round Rock Ranching to find out how he and his family sell their calves. The McGrath family ranch south of Vermilion, Alta, and they’ve sold into a variety of beef programs. In this video interview, McGrath talks about what those buyers are looking for.
VIDEO: What cattle buyers want
There's more than one way to sell a calf these days
Young farmers getting a head start
Among supply management’s successes are its programs to help young farmers get established
Reading Time: 10 minutes “We’ve got a lot of young people coming in,” says Tim Lambert, CEO of the Egg Farmers of Canada. Like others, he credits board programs that give young farmers preferential access not only to quota, but to training in business leadership, and management. Yet underpinning it all, says Lambert, is income security. “They earn a […] Read more
Guenther: Seeding in home stretch for dry NW Saskatchewan
Reading Time: 2 minutes Seeding is drawing to a close in northwestern Saskatchewan, largely due to warm, dry weather this month. On average, seeding in the northwest was over half done early in the week, according to the latest Saskatchewan Crop Report. Provincially, farmers are 51 per cent done, putting them miles ahead of the five-year average of 28 […] Read more
Some Prairie pulses’ limited releases under review
Reading Time: 2 minutes Saskatchewan Pulse Growers wants your opinion on how they release pulse varieties through exclusive tenders. The grower group contributes levy funds to the University of Saskatchewan’s Crop Development Centre pulse breeding program. In return, Sask Pulse holds exclusive commercial rights to varieties developed in the program. Most new varieties are released royalty-free to seed growers […] Read more
Taking over the shop
When the big chains consolidated their outlets, business-minded locals and farmers started up their own independent farm supply businesses. They’re succeeding too, but it isn’t simple
Reading Time: 12 minutes Old habits were dying hard, even on a personal basis. Here, about two hours west of Prince Albert, Sask., the Canadian National Railway abandoned the branch line that used to run up from North Battleford, connecting the little towns that had been my stomping grounds. It happened just a couple of years after I finished […] Read more
Debate: Sask. ag leaders seek rail response
Reading Time: 2 minutes If there’s one thing all Saskatchewan’s political parties can agree on, it’s that the current rail system isn’t working for grain producers — but there’s less consensus on the solutions. Transportation is the single most important issue facing grain growers in Saskatchewan right now, said Cathy Sproule, the provincial New Democrats’ ag critic, during an […] Read more
Debate: Sask. farmers aim to bridge digital gap
Reading Time: 2 minutes Infrastructure has always been top of mind for many rural Saskatchewan residents — but rural infrastructure needs in 2016 can’t all be met with gravel, graders and culverts. With a provincial election around the corner, improving digital and cellular service was a focal point in an ag leaders’ debate held in Saskatoon Tuesday. The Why […] Read more
The 5 per cent solution of farm management
On the Hebert farm, the momentum for growth is internal
Reading Time: 7 minutes In Saskatoon in mid-January, Kristjan Hebert was at the podium of a banquet room, telling the crowd of farmers something that farmers have said all through the generations. Hebert and his family want to build a legacy farm. “And our definition of legacy is extremely simple,” Hebert continued. “We want to leave the land and […] Read more
Is it time to drop the term ‘commercial farmer?’
When you call yourself a commercial farmer, consumers may hear ‘factory farm’
Reading Time: 6 minutes Labels are a tricky business, especially in an agriculture where there is a dictionary full of words you can use to describe other farmers, or that you can use to call yourself. Are you a farmer, or a producer? Or are you a grower, or a rancher? More to the point, what do you call […] Read more
Forty years of farming requires a spirit for change
It turns out that successful diversification depends on the mindset you bring to it
Reading Time: 5 minutes When Kevin Lisafeld was still a teenager, his mother, Evelyn, told him not to put all his eggs in one basket. That advice has served him well during a 40-year career as a farmer and businessman. But success doesn’t come from diversifying for the sake of diversification. Lisafeld has learned how to spot an opportunity, […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
