Last month, the Thrall family announced it had reached an agreement to protect the over 54,000 acres of native grasslands in southern Alberta that make up the historic McIntyre Ranch through a conservation easement with the Nature Conservancy of Canada and Ducks Unlimited. This makes the ranch the largest piece of privately-owned grasslands to be… Read More
Tag: Ducks Unlimited
As the saying goes, if you want to cut down on eating cookies, don’t buy them. In that spirit, if winter wheat is in the farm plan, there needs to be seed on-farm well ahead of the ideal seeding window. That’s just one of five key planning steps that Monica Klaas, of Ducks Unlimited Canada, shares… Read More
Winter wheat’s value in providing critical habitat for ducks and other wildlife will be highlighted on store shelves with a new food and drink label designed to help consumers identify environmentally friendly products. The “Habitat-Friendly Winter Wheat Ecolabel Program” was launched last week as a partnership between Cereals Canada, Alberta Wheat Commission, Saskatchewan Winter Cereals… Read More
Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC) has announced the creation of an endowed chair in wetland and waterfowl conservation position at the University of Saskatchewan (USask). As of July 1, Mitch Weegman, an avian ecologist, will take on a teaching position and a research program that will address pressing environmental issues in the Department of Biology. “Saskatchewan,… Read More
Ducks Unlimited Canada has appointed six new directors to its board, including several with agricultural backgrounds. Fawn Jackson, Colleen Dyck, John Eagle, Rob Penner, Sara Penner, and C. Ian Balfour were elected to volunteer roles during the wetland conservation organization’s board of directors meeting on Saturday. “We’re pleased to welcome these outstanding individuals to our… Read More
It’s time for farmers to be thinking about seeding winter wheat, but many questions still remain around the crop such as: when do I seed it? What sort of yields can I expect? How frost resistant is the variety? Always top of mind for this crop, too, is fertility — how much is enough and… Read More
If you need any more evidence that times are changing in farming, look no further than a new partnership between the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) and an activist group called Environmental Defence. You likely know the former. The OFA describes itself as Canada’s largest voluntary farm organization, representing more than 36,000 farm families across… Read More
Nature is cruel. Or, put another way, nature is perhaps the most fair — she, if we can call it a she, cares very little as to the outcome of any change in the environment. There is a consequence to every action, but nature doesn’t judge what is good and what is bad. It just… Read More
Challenges with getting this year’s canola crop off the field are shortening the window for seeding winter wheat. While canola stubble is the preferred seed bed for winter wheat, a delayed growing season and untimely rains over the last few weeks have resulted in canola harvest running later than normal in much of Western Canada…. Read More
If it’s late May and your winter wheat crop is awake and starting to look good so you figure it’s time to top up the nitrogen, you’ve already missed the ideal window for a spring application. Plus, if you didn’t take care of winter annuals last fall, those tiny seedlings that over wintered took off… Read More