Ag News

Multiple years of drought can result in lower overall forage production on pastureland. Impacts of the prolonged drought not only reduce the amount of plant material available for livestock consumption but reduce the amount of plant material retained as carryover litter on the soil surface at the end of the grazing season.

A new lentil and faba bean breeder has been hired at the University of Saskatchewan's Crop Development Centre. 

Dr Ana Vargus grew up in Central America where she worked in common bean and corn breeding and completed her PhD at the University of Saskatchewan.

"The Crop Development Centre and the University of Saskatchewan have a great history of excellence, innovation, and collaboration that make our institution the best place to work. I look forward to building upon this great history through my experience and passion for pulses and crop improvement." 

A new soup mix developed from Saskatchewan-grown products is being used to help fight food insecurity in the province.

The Farm2Kitchen soup mix product is a collaboration between the USask College of Agriculture and Bioresources, the Global Institute for Food Security (GIFS), Saskatchewan Food Industry Development Centre Inc. (Food Centre), and the Regina Food Bank and the Saskatoon Food Bank & Learning Centre.

The soup mix feeds a family of four and uses provincially grown lentils and oats.

Innisfail RCMP is asking for the public's help in solving a livestock incident from November.

A two year old horse, a Grulla Colt valued at $5000 was shot and killed overnight on November 28th.

The incident occurred near Township Road 353 and Range Road 255 in Red Deer County in between the town of Innisfail and Pine Lake.  

The investigation shows the horse was killed by a single gunshot wound to the gut.

RCMP are reaching out to the public for help identifying the subject.

The latest cattle marketing report from Manitoba shows the average weekly price for feeder steers ranged from $245 per cwt for the 901 plus category to $389.93 per cwt for the 401 to 500 pound category with the biggest drop of $15.05 per cwt for the 801 to 900 pound category to $267.70 per cwt.

Feeder heifer prices ranged from $215.42 per cwt for the 900 plus category to $329 per cwt for the 401 to 500 pound category.

D1-D2 slaughter cows in Manitoba selling for an average price of $116.93 per cwt while D3's were at $103.88 per cwt.

As the year draws to a close we've started seeing an increase in grain movement.

David Przednowek, the assistant vice president of grain for CN Rail,  says for the last number of weeks grain movement has been slow.

"So a lot of capacity got left on the table, unfortunately. What we've seen since then is a bit of an uptick in demand for grain movement over the past couple of weeks grain shipping week 19 which was the week of December 3rd, we moved  just over 570,000 tonnes that compared to 500,000 tonnes the previous week."

Quorum Corporation, the federal grain monitor for prairie grain handling and transportation, has been studying the costs associated with moving grain to the East Coast versus the West Coast.

Quorum's Mark Hemmes says the majority of grain destined for export - about 75 per cent - moved out of the West Coast Port facilities while about 11 million metric tonnes of grain moves through Eastern Canada each year.

McDonald’s Canada has become the very first Platinum Partner of the Canadian Cattle Young Leaders (CYL) Program. 

McDonald’s has been a Foundation Partner since 2017 and their support of the program exceeds their financial contributions. 

Their support has ranged from participating as mentors to CYL  participants, collaborating on workshops and tours, and helping with the judging process for selecting program participants.

Ottawa and the Province are opening up $1 million in AgriRecovery support to help Saskatchewan beekeepers rebuild their colonies.

The funding is being made available for commercial beekeepers that suffered abnormally high colony losses of over 30 per cent  in 2022.

Federal Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay says bees play a vital role in pollinating so many of our crops, and are integral to the success of our Canadian agricultural system.

On average, Saskatchewan is home to about 100,000 colonies, which produce almost 20 million pounds of honey each year. 

Alberta's water supply has mostly relied on melting snow and rain.

But two out of the last three years saw Alberta dealing with drought conditions. 

This year has been particularly dry, due to mountain snow depleting earlier than normal in the spring and a lack of rain over the summer, which caused parts of Alberta to experience drought.

This autumn saw no relief for the parched, with continued lower than average precipitation levels.

Diamond Valley and Okotoks were no exceptions.