This week, TWORA's guest host with the gruff voice, Debra Murphy, gives highlights of some of the news from the Alberta Beef Producers and a recent funding announcement at the Saskatchewan Beef Industry Conference. She also hears from Lyndsey and Shaun, who were out of the office this week on adventures to tropical Alberta and... Read More
Category: Western Canada
Cigi’s (Canadian International Grains Institute) applied research work into optimizing the nutritional quality of pulse flours got a significant funding boost today with the Government of Canada committing nearly $1 million for a four-year project. Cigi’s Advancing Pulse Flour Processing and Applications project will receive $959,918 from the Canadian Agricultural Adaptation Program (CAAP). The project... Read More
Bleeding edge, leading edge and early adopters — how far has variable rate and precision farming evolved in just five years? For the answer to that question, Shaun Haney caught up with Scott Phillips, with FarmersEdge, at Saskatoon’s Crop Production Show. From the difference between treating data like a commodity or an information source, to... Read More
The hangover of 2014's long, drawn out, wet harvest has already taken a toll on seed supplies of certain crop types for 2015, says Holly Gelech, Biovision Seed Lab's business development manager. The full fallout, however, has likely not been realized. "Farmers did a great job this fall getting seed samples in early," says Gelech,... Read More
The ongoing quest — or battle — to feed the planet is not solely a foreign affair. Nor is it a product of war or natural disaster. Take Ontario, for example. In one of Canada’s most affluent provinces, more than 375,000 people use food banks every month. The underlying causes of Ontarians’ hunger are different... Read More
Barley water, anyone? While most Canadians associate eating barley as beef and barley soup, this ancient grain is actually much more flexible than that. In some countries, barley is already considered a premium ingredient, thanks to verified health claims, and is consumed as a drink or in noodles and baking, says Linda Whitworth, market development... Read More
Four additional seeds per plant can result in a five to ten percent bump in soybean yield — every little bit adds up. That was the message from Tony White, St. Louis-based technology development lead with Monsanto, speaking at the Southwest Ag Conference in Ridgetown earlier this month. “When you look at where we’ve come... Read More
Today, at the Saskatchewan Beef Industry Conference in Regina, Saskatchewan, Agriculture Minister Lyle Stewart announced a nearly $3.8 million investment in livestock and forage research. "Investments in research help keep our livestock industry growing and strong," said Stewart. "The knowledge that will result from the projects receiving funding will ensure our farmers and ranchers remain... Read More
Canterra Seeds has announced it is going to be releasing the first canola hybrid with any level of resistance to the new 5X clubroot pathotype for planting in 2015. The new race of clubroot disease was discovered in a field north of Edmonton in 2013. Testing by Dr. Stephen Strelkov of the University of Alberta... Read More
The Alberta Beef Producers is considering changes to its current check-off options, changes that, if passed, would mean the entire check-off collected would be non-refundable in addition to a new $1/head levy. The proposed added dollar would also be non-refundable. In 2010, the province's check-offs on cattle sales were made refundable, a hotly-contested change. The... Read More