In the late 1990s, members of the Westlock Vintage Tractor and Machinery Club noticed locally restored antique tractors often went up for auction and left the country. “People here decided they didn’t want that to happen,” said Canadian Tractor Museum president Steven Miller. The group led the creation of the Museum. Opened in 1998, the 20,000 square-foot facility sits on eight acres next to the Westlock Pioneer Museum.
Processing barley into malt for brewing is a persnickety business. Each lot of barley can vary in quality, which requires maltsters to adjust their processing approach. Factors such as protein level, germination and water absorption often require the process to be tailored by batch and sometimes adjusted in real time to produce a quality finished malt product that meets the brewer’s needs.
Canadian grain farmers face unpredictable weather, rising costs and global market shifts. What keeps them competitive is progress, which often starts with plant breeding. The ability to grow higher-yielding crops, use fewer inputs and adapt to climate and pest pressures requires years of research, breeding and testing.
Every week, millions of Canadians enjoy their morning toast, lunch wraps and pasta dinners without realizing they’re consuming one of the country’s most exported crops. Canada produces high-quality, nutritious wheat for tables across the globe, yet a surprising disconnect exists at home. While 93 per cent of Canadians regularly consume wheat products, few are aware of the health benefits of this ingredient.
Farmers may soon be able to chat with an AI assistant for agriculture on their smartphones. This is the vision of Felippe Karp, an instructor and researcher at Olds College of Agriculture and Technology. He believes it could make farming easier by boosting efficiency and profits.
Price & Data Quotes (PDQ) is a Prairiewide daily cash bids website launched in September 2015 by the Alberta Wheat Commission. To celebrate the price discovery platform’s tenth year, Alberta Grains asks users to fill out a short survey located on the PDQ homepage at pdqinfo.ca. The survey will remain open until Sept. 30, and the responses will be used to improve the service.
With the help of a Nuffield Canada scholarship, Craig Lester is challenging mainstream media coverage of agriculture. Lester is the founder of Rural Roots Canada, an agriculture media company he launched in 2010. In 2022, he left his day job as a broadcast journalist to work full time on his own business.
This past fall, Northwest Polytechnic (NWP) in Grande Prairie launched its new two-year Agriculture Operations Diploma Program. “The program is unique because it focuses on preparing people to work in the ag industry on farms, in retail and in sales,” said NWP agriculture operations instructor Josefine Bartlett. The program’s curriculum balances agricultural theory with hands-on experience, and the school year aligns with the seasonal demands faced by students who live and work on family farms, she added. “It’s a one-of-a-kind program with nothing else quite like it across Canada.”
Robin Nikkel fondly recalls playing with toy farm equipment as a child at his family’s farm near Morden, MB. “I did a lot of carpet farming and making hay on the front lawn,” said Nikkel, who now operates an auto transport company in Delta, B.C.
When barley germinates prior to harvest or in the bin it can cause significant problems for the maltster to achieve a high-quality malt product. Maltsters generally reject barley that exhibits significant pre-harvest sprouting. The livestock industry also typically discounts pre-sprouted feed barley.
