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1 month ago | 
agproud.com | Bruce Derksen
Whether referred to as wild, feral, pigs, boars, swine or hogs, these adaptable animals are an invasive species steadily encroaching into over 35 U.S. states and several Canadian provinces.
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2 months ago | 
agproud.com | Bruce Derksen
Running a successful cow-calf operation requires an almost immeasurable amount of management decisions, ranging from ration ingredients to whether in vitro fertilization (IVF) is in the cards. One decision that producers contemplate is whether to preg check their females. While most livestock owners book a veterinarian for this service, a few still practice avoidance, citing extra labor, facility wear and tear, added animal stress, time allotments and financial limitations as reasons to abstain.
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Jan 7, 2025 | 
agproud.com | Bruce Derksen
Most rural landowners could raise beef on their properties by slapping together a fence, building a shelter, gathering feed requirements and ensuring a constant water supply – if that were all it took. These isolated actions will never on their own drive positive results. To raise livestock efficiently, producers need to break these building blocks into minute pieces, each focused on improving management.
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Dec 16, 2024 | 
canadiancattlemen.ca | Bruce Derksen
What does a good bull look like? It’s a perpetual question during bull buying season, so Canadian Cattlemen asked a commercial producer and a seedstock beef producer how they evaluate bull conformation.
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Nov 15, 2024 | 
feedlotmagazine.com | Bruce Derksen
Physical work has long been a constant in beef cattle production. Farmers and ranchers are no strangers to getting their hands dirty in all the toughest jobs, but times are changing. Technologies are making our industry more efficient both from a labor perspective and an animal production perspective. Innovations continue to develop with outside-the-box thinking, artificial intelligence and people willing to try something different.
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Nov 15, 2024 | 
agbio.usask.ca | Bruce Derksen
How crop rotation options offered by new climate-smart varieties will create economic and environmental gains. By Bruce Derksen Nov 15, 2024 The four-year (2023–2026) University of Saskatchewan (USask) ACTIVATE project was designed to contribute to Canada’s greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets and develop new and improved climate-smart wheat and lentil cultivars and microbiomes. In combination, it also aims to improve on-farm crop-rotation management options.
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Nov 7, 2024 | 
agproud.com | Bruce Derksen
Drones in cattle measurementA recent USDA cattle behavior-based grant focused on beef production decentralization, especially among small farmers. As most producers hold down full-time off-the-farm jobs, they often have little time left to maintain healthy and profitable herds. “We wanted to make their lives easier with this grant,” says Michael Sama, a professor of biosystems and agricultural engineering at the University of Kentucky.
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Oct 22, 2024 | 
canadiancattlemen.ca | Bruce Derksen
Manitoba’s Livestock Predation Prevention pilot continued its 2020-23 assessment of various predation risk mitigation practices focused on cattle and sheep populations in and around farmyards. Read AlsoLeptospirosis in people, dogs, horses and cattleThe story about leptospirosis started during a dog walk with good friends as part of our daily outing.
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Oct 4, 2024 | 
agproud.com | Bruce Derksen
“Help wanted: Full-time, farm-based IT and technology specialist.”Will technology’s rapid advancement drive these types of advertisements in the near future? Trends, deliveries and acceptance“Agriculture’s technology curve is moving upward by orders of magnitude as the conditions for making a living get harder and harder,” says Billy Cook, vice president of producer relations for Enriched Ag. “To compete, we must deliver more scale and volume or be focused on a truly defined high-value product.
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Sep 20, 2024 | 
canadiancattlemen.ca | Bruce Derksen
Predators such as coyotes, wolves, bears, cougars and foxes have been threatening and killing young, weak and compromised cattle and sheep in Manitoba since domestic farming began. Financial losses range between minimal to potentially devastating depending on location, workforce numbers, operation size and nearby habitat.
