Anyone who has lived on or near a farmyard with chickens is well aware of the rooster’s ability to trumpet the arrival of morning long before the sun peeks over the horizon. But roosters have been delivering a wake-up call of a different sort lately — sounding the alarm over the risks inherent with the
The rooster’s wake-up call
Ergot becomes invisible in manufactured feed
Researchers and feed makers say new guidelines for assessing risk are needed
The two pictures of pelleted feed veterinary toxicologist Dr. Barry Blakley put up on the screen at a recent ergot symposium here looked identical. But one had enough toxins in it to kill livestock. The rising levels of ergot in western Canadian cereal grains and forages has turned into a nightmare for the manufactured feed
Frozen ears and feet— but not from the cold
Ergot contaminated feed is causing a wide range of easily misdiagnosed herd health problems in Western Canada
Long, brutally cold Prairie winters could be masking signs of a serious toxin lurking in livestock producers’ feed bins, a University of Calgary veterinary professor warned feed and livestock industry officials recently. Dr. Eugene Janzen, assistant dean of clinical practice, said he was initially perplexed in the winter of 2013 when he observed Alberta feedlot
Worthwhile trade-off
New drainage and water management initiatives announced earlier this month will make it easier for Manitoba farmers to drain low spots in their fields, but harder — much harder — to convert wetlands into annual crop production. It may seem like a nuanced distinction and it will undoubtedly make many in the farming community nervous
Finding a better balance
There once was a rooster on our farm that was so nasty and unpredictable, he wound up in the stewing pot after a violent confrontation with Uncle Jerry — an event that even decades after the fact remains a cherished bit of family folklore. That rooster was big, beautiful and fearless. He ruled the roost with
Turning the sod on water management with multiple benefits
The Pelly Lake Watershed Management project will help control spring runoff, boost hay yields, reduce nutrient loads and produce biofuel
In a symbolic nod to the past, officials here used an old coal shovel to turn the sod on a project many see as a new future of renewable energy and renewed water quality. After decades of failed attempts to drain a picturesque valley located about five km southeast of Holland so that farmers could
So much for the ‘cheap food’ defence
Ag boosters habitually fall back on two defences whenever someone questions why farmers do things the way they do — usually on ethical or environmental sustainability issues. We’ve dealt with fallacies of the first mantra — our farmers must feed the world — previously in this space. Increasing the productivity of small-scale farmers — most
Thinking of bees
Bees rank right up there with climate change these days for the volume of studies and stories that cross a farm newspaper editor’s desk. Sometimes the two are even linked, such as the prediction that Africanized honeybees, which can be fatally aggressive, will make their way north from the southern U.S. as median temperatures rise.
Coming clean on antibiotics
Canadian health and veterinary authorities have been discussing the virtually unregulated and poorly monitored antibiotic use in farm animals since the late 1990s. Now Health Canada is starting to do something about it. In new protocols to be phased in over the next three years, producers wishing to use antibiotics considered important to human medicine
Change is constant
The next time you have an hour or two to spare, find your way to the National Centre for Livestock and Environment’s website and download a paper called: Moving Toward Prairie Agriculture 2050. But be forewarned, while reading through it doesn’t leave one with any overriding sense of panic, neither does it leave one feeling