Ergot is an infection of grasses and cereal crops caused by the fungus, Claviceps purpurea. The oversized purplish-black ergot bodies that develop in the place of seeds or kernels can be easily identified in standing crops and uncleaned grain, but it’s a different story once the grain has been processed and one with which Wayne […] Read more
Pellets can have ergot too
Wayne Brost learned that lesson the hard way
Biting into the beef market
Take a conscientious ranching family, add some grassfed beef-finishing know-how, season it well with business and marketing savvy, then garnish with a twist of slow-food philosophy and you have the perfect recipe for a new branded beef line — Bite Beef’s slowgrown grass-fed beef. The Bite Beef Company was started by managing partners Nicole Lamb […] Read more
A taste of drought
Techniques to extend the grazing season pay off for this grazier
Techniques to extend the grazing season pay off for this grazier
It’s the driest Randy Tkachyk can recall in his 20 years of farming the family’s 105-year-old farm near Sundown, Man. Situated near the borders of Ontario and the U.S. along the western edge of the Lake of the Woods ecoregion, the Sundown area typically receives about 20 inches of rain during the growing season. This […] Read more
Taking care of customers and their cattle
That’s the motto that underpins Kasko Cattle Co.’s expansion over the past decade and a half
That’s the motto that underpins Kasko Cattle Co.’s expansion over the past decade and a half
Kasko Cattle Co. is proud to be marking its 15-year milestone. It’s no small feat for this young company considering the string of setbacks that have hit the Canadian beef industry since the Kasko family entered the custom cattle-feeding business in 1997. Yet, for every knock, the company has bounced back with a step forward. […] Read moreWard Off Invaders
A complete series of five fact sheets promoting beneficial management practices (BMPs) to prevent and control the spread of invasive plants is now available from the Saskatchewan Forage Council. The fact sheets offer BMPs for forage seed, hay, grazing, riparian areas, and transportation developed by people with expertise in all sectors of agriculture, says project […] Read more
Belgian Blues Change With The Times
Sam Dunlop s road to becoming president of the Canadian Belgian Blue Association (CBBA) began nine years ago when he and his wife, Paula, and their two sons emigrated from Northern Ireland. The transition from the misty isle where their families raise Charolais cattle, sheep and vegetables, to the arid Canadian prairie near Southey, Sask., […] Read more
You Can Breed Heifers At A Lighter Weight
The market value of a weaned heifer calf and feed consumed from weaning to calving are the two biggest costs in raising replacement heifers. So if you want to shave some cost from replacements you have to look at the feed bill. John and Adele Popp of Erickson, Man., have successfully reduced the cost of […] Read more
Let’s Talk About Risk
Faced with low grain prices for crops they were growing on rented land and interest rates soaring above 20 per cent in the early 1980s, the de Boer brothers of Monarch, Alta., took what they saw as a calculated risk and established a 2,400-head custom feedlot. Thinking back on their entry into the cattle feeding […] Read more
Bales And Corn Stretch The Grazing Season
Wayne Heinrichs doesn t aspire to any one particular beef production philosophy, but pulls together information from many schools of thought to customize a winter- feeding system for his beef operation near Brandon, Man. His goal as the system evolves is to find the most economical way to winter his herd without sacrificing performance and […] Read more
Mixed Farming On A Grand Scale
If Kevin Woods had a million dollars in the bank, he d probably try to leave it there for one basic reason it would make it easier to get more money to make more money farming. I have always loved farming. That s why I m here, but it all boils down to the money, […] Read more
Canadian Cattlemen Presents: Depth of Field
