Consumers who want answers about the beef industry and farmers who want to understand shoppers’ perspectives both need trustworthy data.

The Ag for Life Rural Safety Unit redeployed in August of 2022 at Whoop-Up Days in Lethbridge. The mobile trailer attraction allows children and their families to learn about the hazards of rural life through digital games, hands-on learning experiences and print resources.

Insects can do serious damage within grain bins. Tasked by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada with the launch of a comprehensive survey of insect impacts on stored grain in 2020, researcher Vincent Hervet set out to update data last collected in the 1980s.

TR19655. No, it’s not the name of a robot from the latest Star Wars movie. Rather, it’s the newest two-row malting barley variety developed by the Field Crop Development Centre (FCDC) at Olds College.

It is a valuable livestock feed, food ingredient, beer component and is even used to lower blood pressure, but if barley loses its market, farmers will feel the economic pressure. After Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou was arrested in Vancouver in 2019, China banned two major Canadian grain trading companies from exporting canola seed to that country. While the three-year prohibition was lifted in May of 2022, it left the barley sector to question its own trade relationship with China. Could Canada be next? If so, what then?

The Russian invasion of Ukraine began on Feb. 24, 2022, resulting in thousands killed or injured, millions displaced and the destruction of urban and rural areas alike. This catastrophic escalation of the almost-nine-year Russo-Ukraine War has also devastated Ukrainian agriculture. It’s a brutal hit that will have long-lasting and far-reaching consequences within the country and across the globe.

Spring of 2023 will be a lively political time as Alberta’s general election pits the UCP and new Premier Danielle Smith against the NDP and former premier Rachel Notley.

Karen Tanino, a University of Saskatchewan plant sciences professor, and master’s student Ariana Forand, investigate how plants withstand multiple stresses such as heat, drought, cold and disease. The results of a study they recently completed could be used to help plants better withstand stresses caused by climate change and disease.

University of Missouri plant scientist Ron Mittler has discovered a new way to measure stress in plants using signalling molecules called reactive oxygen species (ROS). His work is especially timely given the challenges farmers face due to variable climates and extreme weather events. The results of Mittler’s work could be used to increase plant resilience in the face of environmental stress.

With $1.1 million in industry and government funding, the University of Saskatchewan will soon be home to a brand new, high-tech, bio-secure insect research facility.