Reading Time: 3 minutes Having tracked more double-digit percentage increases in Canadian farmland prices through 2015, Canada’s federal farm lender sees factors lining up for those values to retreat. Farm Credit Canada’s latest Farmland Values Report, released Monday, logged a 10.1 per cent increase in average farmland values in Canada in 2015, down from a 14.3 per cent rise in […] Read more
Farmland fundamentals potentially bearish: FCC
Alberta to pare slots cut for horse racing sector
Reading Time: 2 minutes A renewed 10-year funding agreement for Alberta’s horse racing industry body will see its take from racetrack slot machine revenue cut from almost 52 per cent down to 40 per cent by 2018. The provincial government, in a release March 19, said its new agreement “will help ensure the viability of Alberta’s horse racing industry […] Read more
Mild winter, poor snow cover watched in Alberta, Saskatchewan
Reading Time: 2 minutes CNS Canada –– A milder than normal winter, with a lack of significant snow cover across much of Alberta and Saskatchewan, may be raising concerns in parts of the Prairies — but there is still plenty of time before spring seeding will begin. “There’s not much moisture there,” said Harry Brook, crop specialist with Alberta’s […] Read more
Crop diseases take a bit of a break in 2015
Drier conditions this past season kept a lid on most crop diseases — but this is probably just a brief respite until environmental conditions line up again
Reading Time: 8 minutes The bad news is that dry weather cut yields across much of the Prairies in 2015. The consolation? This same weather kept fungal diseases in check. In fact, areas that were in the sweet spot of lower pressure but enough rainfall to carry yield were rewarded with exceptional crop quality. Country Guide recently spoke to […] Read more
Clubroot continues its march across prairie canola fields
So far nothing appears to have slowed the spread of clubroot, so some are suggesting it might be time to rethink our approach
Reading Time: 9 minutes Over the past dozen years the canola industry has poured an ocean of effort into halting the spread of clubroot around the Edmonton area. And while there have been advances such as new resistant varieties, one uncomfortable truth remains — the disease continues to spread. Dan Orchard, a Canola Council of Canada agronomist who discovered […] Read more
Alberta’s farm worker bill passes, with tweaks
Reading Time: 3 minutes A more specific version of the Alberta government’s bill to extend workers’ comp and OHS regulations to paid farm workers has cleared the legislature. Bill 6, the Enhanced Protection for Farm and Ranch Workers Act, passed third reading 44-29 Thursday. It received royal assent Friday, after the legislature adjourned until Feburary. But the bill, as […] Read more
Alta. farm bill applies to paid workers only, minister says
Reading Time: 3 minutes UPDATED, Nov. 28, 2015 — New legislation applying Alberta’s rules on workplace standards and workers’ compensation to farm workers is meant for farms’ paid employees — not for family members or neighbours helping out on family farms. The province’s labour minister has said as much after stormy early going in the government’s consultations on Bill […] Read more
Alta. names new deputy ag minister
Reading Time: < 1 minute A former assistant deputy minister in municipal affairs is now Alberta’s chief agricultural bureaucrat. Beverly Yee was named Thursday as the new deputy minister for agriculture and forestry, replacing Jason Krips. Yee, who has worked for the province since 1994, has held several executive management positions, the province said. Her most recent posting was as […] Read more
Livestock seen threatened as biting insects press north
Reading Time: 2 minutes Bluetongue’s most recent appearance in the Canadian cattle herd may be a taste of what’s to come as insect species expand northward, a new study warns. Anna Zuliani, previously a graduate student in veterinary medicine at the University of Calgary (UCVM), recently published a paper on how geographical distribution of biting midges relates to the […] Read more
LGBT on the farm
On these farms, diversity is good for business
Reading Time: 7 minutes Now 33, Otis Bell admits he’s outside the mainstream of agriculture. Growing up in Seattle, Bell next lived in Olympia, where he got his first taste of growing plants and gardening, and where he decided to get more directly involved with farming. “I think being queer made me take a step out of some of […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
