If you've got livestock, eventually you've got deadstock, too. Disposing of that deadstock can be a source of disease transmission or environmental contamination if not done properly, so it's very important that ranchers and feedlot owners have a plan in place to deal with deadstock. There are several options available, all with pros and cons,…Read More
Category: Video
Pass the peachy strawberries and purple lettuce, would you? If you asked me a couple of weeks ago, what light meant to plants, I would say simply, "life." But, after my discussion with Kevin Folta, associate professor at the University of Florida, light has become as fascinating as the very plants that depend on it.…Read More
This past week not only marked the running of the Royal, formerly the Royal Agriculture Winter Fair, but also the Canadian Young Speakers for Agriculture competition in Toronto, Ont. Each year, bright young minds in two categories, junior and senior, gather together to give a five to seven minute speech on a given topic. Just…Read More
Preg-checking cattle can feel a little bit like heartbreak when the vet yells, "open!" But the disappointment of selling a good cow is nothing compared to the devastation that can occur from an undetected breeding problem. Feeding cows over winter is not cheap, nor is it always easy (as some of us newbies learned from…Read More
If Canada thistle is a headache in an annual cropping system, it's a migraine in perennial crops, where control strategies tend to be expensive and rumours about what works and what doesn't spread as quickly as the weed itself. Canada thistle is not only a prolific seed producer, it also proliferates through its creeping root…Read More
It's not every day that you get to meet two Twitter legends, let alone convince them to let you videotape the discussion that ensues. I was just so lucky last week, when I met Cami Ryan (@doccamiryan), researcher at the University of Saskatchewan, and Michele Payn-Knoper (@mpaynknoper), professional speaker and founder of Cause Matters Corp.…Read More
Respiratory disease and distress can be caused by a variety of factors, ranging from viruses to drastic changes in diet. Signs and symptoms, though alike, often go undetected, their subtleties akin to those of other prey animals, who mask illness in order to fool predators. By the time producers or health professionals recognize symptoms, the…Read More
Did you know seeding corn following canola can result in a competitive disadvantage to the corn (with limited herbicide options) AND phosphate availability issues? Or, that even northern parts of the Prairie Provinces are successfully growing grain corn? Last week, I attended a corn harvest demonstration in North Battleford, where I was able to talk…Read More
"If you can't measure it, you can't manage it." While this business principle seems to apply more to hard numbers and bushels per acre, it applies just as perfectly to rangeland production. Beyond just grass tonnage or pounds of growth per acre, there are several other outputs of rangeland production that should be assessed, measured…Read More
Do you wash your seeder out when you're done planting? Have you taken the pressure off your tank lids? Are the chains, bearings and grease-points protected from the elements? A few weeks ago we published an article addressing what you need to do to prepare machinery for storage (including a section on preventing rodent infestations…Read More