Breaking Down The Windbreaks

It’s common to hear the chainsaws buzzing this time of year, as the untold number of residents in this province who heat with wood at least some of the time go about gathering, stacking and splitting their winter supply. It’s hard to imagine a more annoying sound than these saws cutting through the afternoon’s calm,

Ohio Livestock Vote Simply Devilish

If idle hands are the devil’s workshop, idle thoughts are, what, the product of a devil’s advocate? Maybe, but one election result from early November leaves plenty of room for thought, idle or otherwise. On Nov. 3, Ohio voters overwhelmingly approved Issue 2, a statehouse-directed ballot initiative to create a “Livestock Care Standards Board.” The


“Fertilizer Wars” Throw Spotlight On Three CEOs

Mike Wilson, Steve Wilson and Mike Bennett are patient men. Embroiled in a nine-month three-way takeover battle, the chief executives of fertilizer companies Agrium Inc., CF Industries Holdings Inc., and Terra Industries Inc. have stayed in the headlines even as a recession and falling grain prices pushed the stocks of their companies off their 2008

Environmental farm plan process like a lottery — but less fun

The first round of successful BMPs (Best Management Practices) applications is over and the few lucky winners have received their notices – as have the many, many unlucky losers. The current Environmental Farm Plan program, in many respects, resembles a lottery. Buy a ticket and take your chances. In the southwest, we had 296 applications


Ritz Must Stand Up For Farmers’ Marketing Systems At WTO

The upcoming World Trade Organization (WTO) talks in Geneva are targeting farmers’ marketing agencies – including supply-management and the Canadian Wheat Board single desk. I predict that Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz will return home from the current round of negotiations announcing that these so-called “state trading enterprises” are no longer legal under WTO trade rules

Inheriting Their Contributions

JOHN MORRISS EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Our office basement contains a treasure of bound copies of the farm publications that preceded some we have today. The Nor-West Farmer, which later became the Grain Growers’ Guide and then the Country Guide, dates to 1882. Occasional trips into these archives can be hazardous to productivity, as it’s easy to


The Fundamental Challenge For The Beef Industry

Excerpts from an opinion published in the Oct. 12 issue of Alberta Farmer Express. The Beef Industry Alliance (BIA) is made up of Alberta Cattle Feeders Association, Western Stock Growers Association, Canadian Legacy Partners, Border Beef and the Alberta Feeders Association. It says several other organizations across Western Canada are expected to join soon. In

Agricultural Policy For Developing Countries: Back To Basics

While many in the U. S. see single-desk marketing boards controlled by farmers as problematic, one needs to consider the nature of the markets into which farmers sell their products. Agricultural policy in developing countries has been an ongoing concern since the end of the Second World War and the dismantling of colonial European empires.


Farm building codes could save lives

In the Nov. 5 story “Farm Building Codes to Vary With Operations,” Peter Wiebe, the New Bothwell broiler producer quoted in your farm building code article is simply missing the point by stating that “bringing farm buildings under the code could be a crack in the door for animal welfare activists to eventually get even

Not The Time To Neglect Agriculture

The 34th North American European Union Agricultural Conference, a major forum for discussion on solutions to the world economic crisis affecting farmers, was hosted by the Canadian Federation of Agriculture at Niagara Falls, Ontario this fall. This year, there were representatives from 73 farm organizations from 19 different countries. It is widely agreed that agricultural