File photo of Black Angus cattle.

Cut costs in your herd carefully

Research on the Record with Reynold Bergen

Research that’s underway now won’t solve this year’s drought, but it should help us deal with the next one. By the same token, research done during the big drought of the early 2000s provides some valuable lessons about managing the cow herd in today’s drought. Dr. Cheryl Waldner of the Western College of Veterinary Medicine […] Read more



When started purposefully, with meticulous planning and consideration for safety, fire can restart the life cycle.

Working with fire for grassland conservation

Prescribed fire can be a useful management tool but must be handled carefully, says Canada’s first prescribed fire exchange group

The implications of a grass fire are rightfully terrifying in most situations. When it’s started purposefully, however, with meticulous planning and high safety standards, fire can act as a beneficial conservation and pasture management practice. “I think we need to relook at how we perceive fire and look at fire not as a destructive force […] Read more

AAFC’s Drought Monitor map effective Jan. 31, 2022. (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada)

Drought conditions ease slightly across Prairies

MarketsFarm — Mixed precipitation throughout January helped drought conditions improve across much of the Canadian Prairies during the month, according to the latest Drought Monitor report from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), released Tuesday. Conditions have deteriorated in some areas, however, and the majority of Western Canada was still in some kind of drought state. […] Read more


Laura and Ryan Plett’s Black Angus cattle “with a Hereford influence” graze a highly forested area of the Sawmill Creek Livestock. Laura Plett says the cattle grazed in heavy bush for about a month this past summer because — thanks to the moisture-preserving shade provided by the trees — those were the only areas still producing grass.

There’s power in a pencil for cow-calf operations

Cattlemen’s Young Leaders participant refines her cow-calf operation with the help of mentorship

Stead, Manitoba is not the easiest place to operate a cow-calf operation. The highly forested landscape requires extensive land clearing before grazing cattle, and even then you might not have the pristine grasslands one might see in cattle country. Both early and late frosts are common and there are never-ending bugs that drive cattle nuts. […] Read more

Grizzly bears are a reality throughout much of B.C. Reducing conflict with livestock continues to be a challenge for the BCCA LPP.

Spring calving heralds beginning of predator season

As bear, cougar and wolf populations rebound, ranchers are working with conservation officers, wildlife specialists and researchers to pinpoint and mitigate problems

Predators have always been a challenge when raising livestock. But with more herds calving on pasture in the spring and recovering wildlife populations, many ranchers in the West are seeing more predators than in times past. Jim Lynch-Staunton of Antelope Butte Livestock, in the foothills of southern Alberta, is one of those ranchers. “We’ve had […] Read more


A lab funded by the Canada Agricultural Partnership can generate a comprehensive soil health report for each site sampled.

Benchmarking and building soil health

Understanding of the significance of what constitutes healthy soil has increased substantially in recent years

When it comes to forages or foraging, what happens below ground is just as important as the biomass material above ground. Interest in soil has traditionally focused on chemical characteristics — including minerals such as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, for fertilizer recommendations — or characteristics such as salinity and pH. Understanding of the significance of […] Read more

Sea surface temperature anomalies over the equatorial Pacific Ocean for the week centred on Jan. 5, 2022. (CPC.ncep.noaa.gov)

La Niña likely to continue into spring, U.S. forecaster says

Reuters — La Nina conditions are likely to continue during the Northern Hemisphere spring, a U.S. government weather forecaster said on Thursday. The La Niña weather pattern, characterized by unusually cold temperatures in the equatorial Pacific Ocean, has a 67 per cent chance of persisting from March through May this year, the National Weather Service’s […] Read more


Lyle and Lee Miller watch as Logan pulls a calf towards the branding crew.

Highway 21 Feeders turns up the bull power to drive feedlot performance

Custom feedlot develops bull program and new sale to bridge the gap between seedstock and feeder sectors

At Highway 21 Feeders, the Miller family knows exactly the type of calves they want in their pens. In their quest to source higher-performing feeder cattle, improving feed efficiency at the seedstock level is moving them towards this target. “The goal has always been to try and help drive a better product to come into […] Read more

Feeding more forages and silage to cattle can give producers the ability to plant polycultures, the roots of which help increase soil biology.

No more baby steps

From the Ground Up with Steve Kenyon

The light bulb did not get invented by incrementally increasing the brightness of the candle. This is a quote attributed to Oren Harari. What he is referring to is the fact that most breakthroughs do not come from aiming for incremental improvements. We need big steps that come from complete mindset changes. For example, using […] Read more