UFA’s recent Cattle College here gave producers a hands-on demonstration on dealing with calf malpresentations, but it wasn’t exactly on a cow. Dr. Claire Ainsworth, a veterinarian with Mayerthorpe Veterinary Services, demonstrated using UFA’s educational plastic model, which contains a calf inside a cow. It was purchased by UFA and is now used by Olds
Dealing with calf malpresentations (but with no pressure)
Red spring wheat quality raising concerns
Customers don’t want to see a repeat of what happened to Australian wheat quality after deregulation
Asian customers are making it clear that wheat quality and consistency remain vital following changes to the Canadian marketing system, and they are already raising red flags about recent shipments. Dave Hatcher, program manager for Asian products and wheat enzymes with the Canadian Grain Commission, told the first annual meeting of Alberta Wheat Commission thatYou can blame aster yellows on bad luck, but not blackleg
Hope for a cold winter this year to knock back aster yellows, loosen up your canola rotations to avoid blackleg, and pick your pulse cultivars with disease resistance in mind. Those were three key pieces of advice offered by plant pathologist Michael Harding at Alberta Pulse Growers’ recent meeting. Aster yellows have been stealing yield
Researchers genotyping semen from historic animals
By genotyping influential beef bulls, researchers hope to create a low-cost tool that predicts key animal traits
Check your tanks for bull semen, because you might have the sample the Canadian Cattle Genome Project is trying to find. Researchers want to sequence the genotypes of influential beef bulls and are looking for semen vials, semen straws, blood, tail hair and tissue to obtain DNA samples. “For each of the breeds we’re workingEast-central Alta. watershed group takes aim at water quality issues
Water quality affects everyone, and that’s especially true in the Battle River watershed. "Unlike many other watersheds in Alberta that have headwaters in mountain regions, the Battle River watershed is Prairie fed and our headwaters are near 60 per cent of our population," said Sarah Skinner, watershed planning co-ordinator for the Battle River Watershed Alliance.
Goat producers urged to provide input into a new national traceability program
Some dairy goat producers want leg bands instead of ear tags and there are different methods for reporting and recording of animal movement, and retiring tags
Atraceability program for goats is coming, and now is the time for producers to give their input on how the system should operate, says the general manager of the Canadian National Goat Federation. “Traceability and animal identification are almost non-negotiable right now,” Jennifer MacTavish said at the recent Alberta Goat Breeders Association conference. “Our roleGoat producers sought for national scrapie study
Goat producers are being urged to participate in a scrapie prevalence study, part of an effort to rid the country of the disease. “What we’re trying to do is establish a strategic plan to get producers involved with scrapie eradication in a way that works for producers,” Corlena Patterson, project co-ordinator of Scrapie Canada, said
Vet says don’t let your four-legged employees suffer from fleas
Vet says flea control isn’t expensive, and is simple to administer and allows working dogs to focus on their job
Your working dog won’t be at its best if he or she is itching from a flea infestation. “Flea prevention has become really easy, and there’s really no reason not to have that as part of your dog-managing program,” said Lynne Copeland a Red Deer-based veterinarian who specializes in herding, guardian and working dogs. ManyAlberta family sets world record with corn maze that’s also a QR code
When the Kraay family says, “Check out our website,” they mean business. The Lacombe farmers have just earned a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records by constructing a corn maze that doubles as a QR code for their farm’s website. QR — short for quick response – is used on a host of
Looking for a different way to control wild oats
Wild oats are Canada’s biggest weed problem — and researchers at the Field Crop Development Centre hope winter wheat can become a big part of the solution. Alternative methods for controlling wild oats are becoming increasingly important, said Neil Harker, an Alberta Agriculture weed scientist who is leading the research in this area. “A lot
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
