“It may be one of the methods that we can help the guys in the heavier clay soils down in the Red River Valley move into a reduced-tillage regime.” – LINDSAY COULTHARD It’s hard not to like alfalfa. But Lindsay Coulthard’s feel ings for the nitrogen-fixing legume go a little deeper than most. During a
MZTRA Farm Sees Big Benefits From Alfalfa
Selkirk’s Little “Dust” Sawmills Fills Niche For Do-It-Yourself Builders
“That’s what our great-grandfathers built everything out of here on the Prairies – poplar.” – JAKE SIEMENS Too many trees is a nice problem to have. The most common solution, it seems, is to hire a bulldozer and push unwanted bush into big piles and burn them. While it may be expedient, it is wasteful,
Early For Grain, Late For Forage
“If I want them for a feedlot-based production system, I’d be willing to pay a premium for the early-calved steers because I can get them ready for slaughter 2.5 months earlier.” – HUSHTON BLOCK Calving on grass in the spring is not only easier on the rancher and the vet bills, it’s also cheaper in
Black, Rich And Found All Over
Manitoba already has a provincial bird, the great grey owl. Our provincial flower is the prairie crocus. Soon we’ll have an official provincial soil too – Newdale. To the layman, Newdale is that nice black earth that grows really nice crops found around Brandon up to the Riding Mountains. Unlike the other Class 2 contender,
Overcoming Parasite Resistance Requires New Strategies
“We have to get over the idea that we want to have zero worms in these animals. That is never, ever going to happen.” – DR. WAYNE TOMLINSON As it turns out, everything you were told about controlling parasites in livestock was wrong. The old practice of regularly deworming the whole herd and then putting
Tender Hoped To Clear Up Junk Pile
“Our hope in doing jobs like this is that all the players will come forward. Unfortunately, I will be phoning scrap metal dealers as well, but the preference was always to find somebody to take it on.” – COLLIN LEGALL The bankruptcy trustee handling the assets of the failed Ranchers Choice beef slaughter plant is
Don’t Let Dogs Eat Deadstock
Keeping guardian dogs with a sheep or goat herd is a popular way to keep them safe from predators. But because they are best left to bond with the livestock and not given much human interaction, their health may not be monitored as closely as pets. In such cases, if they develop canine tapeworm infections,
Community Wind Plans Move Ahead A Step
Standing in the breeze just east of Forrest, Dan Mazier watches as a two-man crew prepares to raise a 60-foot tower in a canola field. Atop the tower will be a device for minute-by-minute measuring local wind speed, sending the data wirelessly via cellular phone signal to a computer. At the end of two years,
Not Having An Expensive Barn Helps, But Low Prices Are Still A Killer
“We looked at the total picture of the diversified farm, and I think it was a pretty good system, but you just can’t survive these kinds of prices.” – ROBERT MCLEAN Even the operations designed to finish hogs without huge capital costs haven’t been spared from the slump in industry profitability. Biotech housing operations made
New Annual Legume To Round Out The Tool Box
“It would make a very good forage crop because it has diosgenin – something no other crop has. I call it the Ben Johnson compound because it is like an anabolic steroid that makes muscle.” – SURYA ACHARYA It’s hard to imagine a more interesting crop. Grown for at least 4,000 years in India, fenugreek
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
