The landscape of rural Saskatchewan is changing; could it be the end of a long-time way of life?

The number of farms in the province has been cut almost in half since 1991. As the number of individual farms shrinks significantly corporate farms are growing by leaps and bounds. That shift is fundamentally changing the landscape of farming and rural life in our province. It begs the question: is this the end of the family farm? Is the homestead becoming Homestead, Inc.?

A crop that acts similar to natural grasslands could help the northern pintail duck population in the province according to a study by a University of Saskatchewan biology student.

David Johns’ research around Shaunavon and Radville compared winter wheat to natural grasslands to see how well pintail ducklings survive.

"The study was radio-tracking pintail ducks in southern Saskatchewan and following them in two different landscapes," he said.

"We searched pretty much the equivalent of half of Saskatoon in area."

The landscape of rural Saskatchewan is changing; could it be the end of a long-time way of life?

The number of farms in the province has been cut almost in half since 1991. As the number of individual farms shrinks significantly corporate farms are growing by leaps and bounds. That shift is fundamentally changing the landscape of farming and rural life in our province. It begs the question: is this the end of the family farm? Is the homestead becoming Homestead, Inc.?

The landscape of rural Saskatchewan is changing; could it be the end of a long-time way of life?

The number of farms in the province has been cut almost in half since 1991. As the number of individual farms shrinks significantly corporate farms are growing by leaps and bounds. That shift is fundamentally changing the landscape of farming and rural life in our province. It begs the question: is this the end of the family farm? Is the homestead becoming Homestead, Inc.?

The landscape of rural Saskatchewan is changing; could it be the end of a long-time way of life?

The number of farms in the province has been cut almost in half since 1991. As the number of individual farms shrinks significantly corporate farms are growing by leaps and bounds. That shift is fundamentally changing the landscape of farming and rural life in our province. It begs the question: is this the end of the family farm? Is the homestead becoming Homestead, Inc.?

A diesel shortage in Western Canada has the Co-Op refinery on rations.

Trucks were seen lining up the refinery in the last few weeks waiting to get their rations from the 78-year-old refiner.

“This is an integrated industry in Western Canada, and what happens in one part of the sector can drive sales in other parts of the sector,” refinery spokesman, Daryl Oshanek, said.

People driving down College Drive will not see the University of Saskatchewan's historic seed barn anymore.

The barn, which has been a fixture in front of Griffiths Stadium for decades was moved Tuesday across the street to its new location on East Road, north of the new dairy facility.

"We're developing hotel sites at that location so we needed to move the barn to make way for the hotel development," said Ron Cruikshank, director of planning and development for the university.

The barn will be repurposed as a storage facility, he added.

The Ministry of Agriculture has made no further moves to allow a fall harvest at the Indian Head Tree Nursery. Another agroforestry group has offered to do the work but were told no. And in the meantime, the tree crop is stuck in bureaucratic limbo.

Bob Hannay was only 15 years old when he helped pull Cecil George Harris out from under a tractor during a heavy storm in 1948.

"My part in it was just to drive the tractor up there and pull the implement back so they could get the fellow out. It was real heavy clay, Rosetown clay, heavy heavy rain, dirt roads. So they hooked chains on the car and my dad said 'don't stop until you get to the highway,'" Hannay said.

Harvesting around Saskatchewan is now 99 per cent complete.

Daphne Cruise, regional crop specialist with Saskatchewan Agriculture, said producers have pretty much wrapped things up for the 2013 season.

“There are some areas that are indicating there are still a few fields of flax, canary seeds and possibly some oats and some chickpeas in the south regions that are still out there. Producers are working hard to try and get those into the bins before any kind of snow flies,” Cruise said.