Reading Time: 2 minutes Saskatchewan’s provincial government has reinstated a provincial sales tax (PST) exemption for agriculture, health and life insurance premiums. Premier Scott Moe on Monday announced the exemption will take effect retroactive to Aug. 1 last year, when the PST was first applied to insurance. The province said the exemption will include PST on premiums paid for […] Read more

Saskatchewan pulls sales tax off farm insurance

Saskatchewan, B.C. areas up for livestock tax deferrals
Reading Time: 2 minutes Livestock producers in several more parched municipalities in Saskatchewan and British Columbia will be able to defer income from sales of animals on their 2017 tax returns. The federal government on Tuesday announced its final list of designated regions for 2017, including 20 more municipalities in Saskatchewan and seven in British Columbia. The initial list, […] Read more

More snow lately over the Sahara than the Prairies
Reading Time: 2 minutes CNS Canada — Parts of the Sahara Desert received rare snowfall over the past week, with up to 40 cm falling in the Algerian desert town of Ain Sefra. That freak snow — only the third time in 40 years — made for some fantastic photographs before melting, but would be more welcome in Western […] Read more

Bovine TB probe’s on-farm testing work complete
Reading Time: 2 minutes On-farm testing work has wrapped on all the cattle herds that supplied animals in the past five years to an Alberta herd that turned up six cases of bovine tuberculosis (TB) in the fall of 2016. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) reported Tuesday it has completed on-farm testing of those “trace-in” herds, which include […] Read more

Wildfire-damaged grazing areas up for Saskatchewan aid
Reading Time: 2 minutes Saskatchewan’s provincial disaster assistance program (PDAP) will be opened up to cover southwestern grazing areas damaged by this fall’s wildfires. The province’s government relations minister, Larry Doke, on Wednesday announced producers who incurred wildfire damage on “tame and native lands” intended for grazing may now apply for assistance to get feed for affected livestock. Winds […] Read more

Winners of Canada’s Outstanding Young Farmers for 2017 celebrated
Reading Time: 2 minutes National winners for Canada’s Outstanding Young Farmer for 2017 were awarded on Dec. 1 to Derek & Tannis Axten of Axten Farms in Minton, Sask., and Véronique Bouchard & François Handfield of Ferme aux petits oignons at Mont-Tremblant, Que. “Once again, the seven regional finalists exceeded our expectations as innovative, forward thinking, young agricultural leaders. […] Read more

Saskatchewan to offer discount option on Crown land
Reading Time: 2 minutes Facing another rent hike in 2018, some Saskatchewan farmers leasing cultivated and “formerly cultivated” Crown land from the province are getting an option to buy the land instead at a 10 per cent discount. Provincial Agriculture Minister Lyle Stewart on Tuesday announced a “targeted incentive” program aimed at about 1,100 eligible leaseholders, offering the 10 […] Read more

A different school
For Vance Lester and Sue Echlin, getting a non-agricultural education proved a big help when they returned to the farm
Reading Time: 6 minutes Graduate degrees in ecology and international relations don’t seem the kind of education that would be likely to help on a Canadian farm. But that’s where we might be wrong. For Sue Echlin and Vance Lester, that kind of schooling has been instrumental in their launching a fruit-growing and winery business, and in keeping it […] Read more

Climate FieldView data system ready for Prairies
Reading Time: 2 minutes In beta testing in the region for much of this year, the Climate FieldView crop data system from Monsanto’s Climate Corp. has gone live on the Prairies. The Climate Corp. announced Wednesday the Climate FieldView platform is available for purchase in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta on a per-acre basis, allowing farmers to start using it […] Read more

Insurer SGI Canada sets up farm unit
Reading Time: 2 minutes The property and casualty arm of Saskatchewan’s Crown insurance agency has set up a new unit zoned strictly agricultural. SGI Canada — the Regina-based property and casualty insurance provider which operates in tandem with the Saskatchewan Auto Fund, the Crown auto insurer — on Wednesday launched a new Farm Business Unit with “a specialized team […] Read more