Reading Time: 4 minutes Ross Bricker was a hard guy to get hold of that Tuesday. He wasn t in his office and his cellphone kept jumping right to voicemail. I wondered, is he on a conference call that just won t quit? Is he stuck in an endless meeting? Maybe he s on year-end, or has to put […] Read more
In At The Start
High-tech ear tags to be put to the test
Reading Time: 2 minutes High-tech livestock ear tags are a step closer to reality in Alberta, thanks to a recent big dollar commitment towards a trial of Ultra High Frequency (UHF) tags. The end-to-end test will track animals through all parts of the beef production cycle, from the producer’s field, through auction markets, feedlots and to the processor. The […] Read more
Rein In That Growth, Big Spender
Reading Time: 5 minutes Nope, no matter how often hail mows down your crop, it probably won’t be the weather that ultimately does in your operation. It likely won’t be poor markets, or changing consumer demands either. Odds are it won’t even be a health crisis, or disease in your crops, or the million and one other worst-case scenarios […] Read more
Thrive In 2011
Reading Time: 6 minutes Farmers are good at business. They know how to make decisions. They know how to plan, they know how to think on their feet. The challenge, says Larry Lindquist, is to not be satisfied with that. It’s like the old rule of the good being the enemy of the great. If you feel you’re already […] Read more
Pack Your Bags
Reading Time: 7 minutes Going on vacation can give anyone time to put issues and stresses in perspective. It can carve out space for making decisions, and it will recharge dead batteries too. That’s a lot of value already. But for farmers, the right kind of vacation can deliver even more. It can open your eyes to entirely different […] Read more
Meet Your Market
Reading Time: 4 minutes MB How much has your farm upbringing influenced how you think of food? JG When I grew up in the 50s and 60s, if we didn’t grow it, my grandfather a mile and a half away grew it, or my uncle two and a half miles away grew it, or one of the neighbours grew […] Read more
Meet Your Market – for Oct. 11, 2010
Reading Time: 4 minutes If you can sell your crops and livestock to John Gilchrist, you can probably sell them anywhere in the country. Calgary s favourite foodie, Gilchrist is the West s most trusted voice on food. In addiiton to his weekly food column in the Calgary Herald and a spot each Friday on CBC Radio One, he […] Read more
Here Goes The Neighbourhood – for Aug. 30, 2010
Reading Time: 8 minutes It’s the crudest question in agriculture. Increasingly, however, it’s the one question that we mustn’t avoid. How much money did you make last year? Yes, it’s important to know how much product you sold, what price you got per unit, and whether those numbers are higher or lower than previous years. But that doesn’t really […] Read more
Stampeding to the Farmers Market
Reading Time: 7 minutes “ A real and personal connection back to the soil.” — Tim Hoven t’s just feels good, you know?” Throwing a grin over his shoulder as he slings a couple of cloth bags bursting with produce into the back seat of his car, that’s what Calgary’s Brandon Hardy says when I ask him why he […] Read more
HWY. 2 Revisited
Reading Time: 10 minutes Commodity and local agriculture are finding ways to coexist in the oil province. There’s even some respect It’s a rare moment but I’ve caught Leona Staples when she has time to talk. She has just waved goodbye to the 100 playschool-aged children and their parents who came for the educational agri-tour she gives of her […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
