Features

February on our farm, means calving time’s arrived We’ve got the barn ready, it resembles a huge bee hive The cow palace is open, the pens they are in place The straw is spread out evenly, it’s like a calving race Conversation in our house is about the action in the barn Consideration is taken […] Read more

The idea of installing shallow-buried pasture pipelines to supply livestock with water has caught on in a big way in recent years. Heightened interest in intensive rotational grazing and the introduction of environmental farm plans have been contributing factors. But the clincher has been the word-of-mouth endorsement of producers who have discoved that a pipeline […] Read more

One hundred and twenty five years of sound cowboy logic has culminated in two prestigious environmental stewardship awards for OH Ranch Ltd. of Longview, Alberta. The OH Ranch team was recognized by its peers as the recipient of the Alberta Beef Producers’ environmental stewardship award at the annual meeting in December. Two months earlier the […] Read more

Doc Seaman rescued OH Ranch from pending use as a military training base when he purchased OH Longview in 1987. Twenty years later, he began to pursue a long-held vision to place the privately-owned portions of the ranch under conservation easements. His goal was to conserve the unique ecosystems on the range that lies along […] Read more

Two brand new feed barley varieties bred by researchers at the Alberta Field Crop Development Centre (FCDC) in Lacombe were featured at the field day there this past summer. Chigwell, a six-row variety licensed to SeCan, and a yet-unnamed two-row variety to be released in January, will undergo seed multiplication in 2009 and 2010 and […] Read more

On a cow-calf operation the end line of the financial statement basically boils down to: “What did I sell my calves for? What did it cost me to produce those calves?” As producers we are often very good at cutting costs, and not so good at adding or establishing value. Many operations sell calves at […] Read more

No doubt — the livestock industry is changing and livestock transporters have no intention of getting left behind. As of November, 2008, more than 230 people had completed training and received certification under Alberta Farm Animal Care’s (AFAC) Certified Livestock Transport (CLT) program. Certification is proof that drivers know how to handle animals, says Mikki […] Read more

AFAC chairman Doug Sawyer is a cow-calf producer at Pine Lake. He says providing the best in livestock care and handling at all stages is not only producers’ responsibility, it’s an integral part of delivering high-quality products. He adds that AFAC has made the CLT “unfit livestock booklet” available to auction markets and producers as […] Read more