Ag News

The Western Dairy Expo begins today in Saskatoon, bringing together dairy producers from across Western Canada to showcase the best of the best in the dairy industry. 

The event runs through Saturday at Prairieland and is also being live-streamed.

The Expo starts at 2 pm today with junior events, featuring showmanship and a junior show where kids under 21 will present heifers.

A new grow season means the continuance of ongoing research trials, and the start to new research projects, at the Westman Agricultural Diversification Organization near Melita (WADO).

Applied Research Crop Analyst with Manitoba Agriculture, Scott Chalmers, says they're starting a new project to test how barley grows at different temperatures in the soil.

Signs say Manitoba’s wild pigs aren’t headed for a population boom, says Wayne Lees, co-ordinator for Squeal on Pigs Manitoba.

“We’ve always heard that, you know, these pigs are going to explode in population,” Lees said. “Our field experience didn’t really support that, so we wanted to start challenging some of these assumptions.”

WHY IT MATTERS: A study from Squeal on Pigs Manitoba appears to show a slower population growth of wild pigs in Manitoba than originally expected.

The 2025 Agricultural Water Management Fund is now accepting applications. This fund aims to support agricultural producers and local governments in developing effective water management projects.

Naomi Paley, Manager of Drainage Extension at the Water Security Agency, explains that qualified applicants can receive up to $95,000 per project through a cost-sharing approach across three funding streams:

Pioneer Co-op recently announced an enormous investment of $10 million for a new Swift Current-based fertilizer plant. 

Work has already begun west of Swift Current, just off the Trans-Canada Highway at the site of the new facility. It will be a 10,000-ton capacity flat bottom facility, capable of coating micronutrients onto the fertilizer. 

It will be divided into a nine-bin partition, with two 50-ton loadout bins. These bins will be capable of loading and unloading semi trucks and trailers in under 15 minutes. 

Cattle market analyst Anne Wasko from Gateway Livestock says that's largely due to tariff uncertainties leading up to April 2nd. 

She notes despite that cattle prices in Western Canada have remained strong, hitting record highs across all classes of cattle with slaughter cow prices hitting another high last week.

Following a comprehensive investigation by Alberta Agriculture and Irrigation’s inspection and investigation section, the FALG program was suspended in February for Alberta’s largest cattle financing co-operative, alleging a number of financial mismanagement and regulatory issues.
 
As negotiations continue to reinstate the Feeders Association Loan Guarantee program to the Picture Butte Feeder Co-operative, the provincial cattle feeders association is making its feelings known.

Statistics Canada is forecasting 232,180 acres, a 20 per cent decrease from last year, but traders question the estimate’s accuracy

Canaryseed brokers and traders think acres this year will be larger than Statistics Canada is indicating.

“Definitely acres are going up, not down,” said David Nobbs, a trader with Bornhorst Seeds.

Statistics Canada is forecasting 232,180 acres of the crop, a 20 per cent decrease from last year.

“I don’t even know why they’re involved in this crop. The numbers that come out are just always wrong,” said Nobbs.

It’s National Soil Conservation Week, and today is Earth Day.  

Farmers and ranchers play a very important role in soil conservation and helping to improve the health of our soil.  

Over the years, producers have modified some of their practices as a way to improve the soil.

The occasional spring snowfall is not unusual for Western Canada, bringing additional moisture prior to seeding.

Parts of southern Alberta including areas around Calgary, Olds, Airdrie, Beiseker and Three Hills received another blast of winter over the weekend, with more snow overnight making travel challenging.

Meteorologist Drew Lerner with World Weather Inc says a significant snowstorm is going to continue to occur in the southeast part of Saskatchewan and southwestern Manitoba today with some other areas seeing some light snow or rain.