(Photo courtesy Canada Beef Inc.)

U.S. corn, DDGS imports likely as drought tightens feed supply

Reading Time: 2 minutes CNS Canada –– Livestock producers in Western Canada will likely have to import feed grains such as corn and dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS) this year, as drought is seen trimming domestic barley and other feed production. “We’ve seen droughts before, and when it’s happened, usually what has to happen is we import other […] Read more



Farmland south of Turtleford benefited from recent rain. (Lisa Guenther photo)

Guenther: Rain drops in on NW Sask.

Reading Time: 3 minutes Farmers and ranchers in northwestern Saskatchewan received much-needed rain late last week and over the weekend. Tom Brown raises cattle and is a crop reporter for Saskatchewan Agriculture and the reeve for the Rural Municipality of Mervin. His farm at Turtleford, about 80 km east of Lloydminster, received 11 mm of rain on Thursday night, […] Read more

(Photo courtesy Canada Beef Inc.)

Prairies’ forage a tale of mixed moisture levels

Reading Time: 2 minutes CNS Canada — Forage crops in Saskatchewan and Alberta are badly in need of rain, while alfalfa is already being cut in Manitoba, a testament to the difference in moisture levels across Western Canada. The majority of the snow in Alberta was gone by the end of March, according to the chairwoman of the Alberta […] Read more


Pacific sea surface temperature anomalies for the week centred on June 3. (CPC.ncep.noaa.gov)

U.S. agency sees El Nino likely to last into 2016

Reading Time: 2 minutes New York | Reuters — A U.S. weather forecaster warned on Thursday the El Nino weather pattern that can cause droughts in Asia and heavy rain in the Americas will likely last into next year, longer than previously expected and potentially roiling crops and commodity prices. The Climate Prediction Center (CPC), an agency of the […] Read more

Dry areas of Prairies still waiting for rain

Dry areas of Prairies still waiting for rain

Reading Time: 2 minutes CNS Canada –– The continued lack of moisture across a large portion of Alberta and Saskatchewan is becoming more of a concern for farmers in the region, but there is a chance of rain in some nearby forecasts. Shannon Friesen, a cropping management specialist for Saskatchewan Agriculture in Moose Jaw, said some livestock producers are […] Read more


man beside a hay-making machine

Quebec haymakers use homemade dryer to improve quality

The Normandins also modified a small hay baler to convert big square bales into small ones

Reading Time: 2 minutes David Normandin and his brother Mathieu preferred driving tractors to milking cows and that’s why they make hay and not milk. The brothers, along with their father Luc and Luc’s partner’s daughter, Audrey Mailloux, operate Norfoin Inc., 57 km southeast of Montreal in the Montérégie region of la belle province. The operation had been a […] Read more

three farmers standing by a fence

Nuffield scholar focuses on energy-dense forages

Study will explore using energy-dense perennial forages as annuals 

Reading Time: 2 minutes One learns fairly quickly upon first meeting him that Clayton Robins is a bundle-of-energy person. So it comes as no surprise that the 2013 Nuffield Scholar has actually travelled the world to learn more about energy. Energy-dense forages, that is. “Every other country I visited looks at sugars in forages except here in North America,” […] Read more


Warmth seen as welcome relief for Manitoba forages

Reading Time: 2 minutes CNS Canada –– A recent wave of warm temperatures is just what’s needed to boost the development of forage crops in Manitoba, which have been slowed due to recent weather, according to two industry experts. “Just within the past week plants are starting to develop, we’re hoping that with the heat they’re forecasting, the crops […] Read more

(Deere.ca)

Arrest made in alleged Alberta hay fraud

Reading Time: < 1 minute A Lethbridge businessman is due in court next month to answer to charges that a Taber, Alta.-area farm business was defrauded out of six figures’ worth of hay. The Taber Police Service said Friday it had completed a “lengthy investigation” into allegations of fraud in which hay was obtained “under false pretenses” from a local […] Read more