With Olds College’s floating island technology project entering its third phase, researchers hope to find a more cost-effective way for livestock producers and feedlots to mitigate water contamination. Olds College is becoming known for its Smart Farm, which started in 2018, to provide a commercial-scale venue for applied research. One of the research projects at […] Read more
Olds College floats native plant-based solution to contaminated water
Box H Ranch explores severe grazing
Laura and Mark Hoimyr focus on longer rest periods on their ranch in southeastern Saskatchewan
It’s a September afternoon when a large charter bus coasts down the back roads near Gladmar, Sask. The hills roll like waves, and the bus rolls with them, inducing nausea. Before long, the bus slows, then stops. Farm journalists and communicators, part of the Canadian Farm Writers’ Federation annual conference, file off the bus and […] Read more
Tips for raising orphan calves
With calving season in full swing for many ranchers across the Prairies, producers are often dealing with a lot of different challenges — snow, rain, and sometimes, calves that end up orphaned. Abby-Ann Redman, a ruminant nutritionist with Blue Rock Animal Nutrition, says when a rancher ends up with an orphaned calf, the most important thing […] Read more
New CCA president has national view from Maritime farm
Nathan Phinney, the first CCA president from the East, is keen on connecting beef producers from one coast to the other
Early in the morning, just as the sun peeks over the horizon, Nathan Phinney is already working on his farm near Moncton, New Brunswick. He spends his morning working cattle, his preferred job on the farm. Through and through, Phinney is a cattleman. “I’ve been farming since I was able to walk,” he says. But […] Read more
Beef report examines issues in processing sector
Two main areas explored for the report
How can we build a more competitive, resilient beef processing industry? A report released earlier this spring aims to provide some answers. On March 14, the Alberta Beef Producers, Alberta Cattle Feeders’ Association and the Canadian Cattle Association released a study into the resiliency and competitiveness of the industry, and identifies barriers to expanding and […] Read more
U.K. author explores regenerative practices on farm
James Rebanks’s first novel celebrated traditional practices, but since publication, he’s been looking for better ways to farm
James Rebanks is proud of his farming heritage — in fact, he wrote a best-selling novel featuring traditional farming practices in the U.K. But he wants to do better. Rebanks is from the Lake District of the U.K., an area popular with tourists because of the rolling mountains inset with sapphire-blue lakes. The Rebanks family […] Read more
Study finds ergot has little effect on bull breeding soundness
A study at the University of Saskatchewan’s Western College of Veterinary Medicine (WCVM) has found that bulls can eat feed contaminated by ergot alkaloids without it severely affecting their reproductive health. Vanessa Cowan, who conducted the study at WCVM, says they decided to conduct this study after producers expressed concern that ergot in their feed […] Read more
Calving records support decision-making
Start simple by tracking two or three things to help make decisions when it’s time to pick replacements or cull the herd
Late March and early April come around for another year and on many farms in Western Canada, the chaos of calving ensues. In the wet and slushy weather of early spring, producers often find themselves wandering in the dead of night, breath still billowing in front of them, to check on a calving cow. The […] Read more
Global study looks at grazing’s effect on drylands
A recent study is untangling the interactions between grazing pressure and climate on soil quality in different sites around the world. Dr. Fernando Maestre Gil, a researcher at the University of Alicante in Spain, was the lead writer of an article published in 2022 in Science magazine called Grazing and Ecosystem Service Delivery in Global […] Read more
AMP grazing speeds carbon cycling, researchers say
A new paper published by the University of Alberta discusses how adaptive multi-paddock (AMP) grazing can increase soil nutrient availability, soil bacteria and fungi and quicken the carbon cycle. The lead researcher on this paper, Upama Khatri-Chhetri, has been involved with many different projects at the university looking at the benefits of AMP grazing. For […] Read more
Canadian Cattlemen Presents: Depth of Field
