Sask Pork and Keystone Agricultural Producers out of Manitoba say a combination of high feed costs and low prices is forcing hog producers out of business.

They say if Ottawa and the provincial governments do not come forth soon with help, many in the hog industry will lose all they have. The two farm groups are calling for loan guarantees to deal with what they call the worst crisis in the history of Canada’s pork industry.

Saskatchewan-based Big Sky Farms is filing for bankruptcy. It's the second biggest hog producer in Canada.

New Canadians were given a lesson in Saskatchewan farming on Saturday.

About 100 new immigrants from 12 different cultures were bused out to a farm south of Lumsden.

Many of them were farmers in their native lands, and this was a chance for them to see how things are down here.

Dhaka Tiarri is from Butan but has been living in Canada since December of 2011. He was one of two men translating what a local farmer was saying.

Tiarri moved from a farming community. He recognized some big differences in the methods used in Saskatchewan.

By the numbers, it could be a very good year for producers in Saskatchewan the latest estimates show barley and wheat production up, with canola on its way to set a new record at 7.3 million tonnes.

Despite the rosy picture of a bumper crop harvest, some producers aren't buying into the estimates before the crop is in the bin.

Regina-area producer David Sloan agrees that crops are looking good, but he's not getting his hopes too high.

A group got together Saturday to discuss the rapidly growing bison industry in Saskatchewan.

The Bison Research Field Day at Agars Corner Farm talked about technical aspects from feeding to mycoplasma but President of the Saskatchewan Bison Association Les Kroeger said that there is more to it.

"It is a great opportunity for people to come and network," he said.

"To talk, share ideas about what is working and what is not working and to show new producers that the bison industry has come a long way and it is a very strong industry to get involved in."

You've probably seen those signs at the side of the road enticing you to pull over and buy "Fresh Taber Corn".

Saskatchewan farmers have one less thing on their minds this year.

The gopher population is dropping across the province. The main reason given is the cooler, wet weather we have experienced.

"In about 2010, we started seeing a drop in numbers and certainly cooler conditions in 2011 and 2012 have seemed to have really knocked the population down for most of the province," said Scott Hartley, Provincial Pest Specialist with Saskatchewan Agriculture.

Saskatchewan has its first case of anthrax this year.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency says a single cow died from the disease on July.23.

The infected cow was from a herd on a farm northwest of Melfort in the rural Municipality of Kinistino, the agency said.

Western producers are starting the new crop year with a lot more options.

"A farmer friend of mine from Manitoba called to say he was in his grain truck and he'd hauled his very first load of free-market wheat," said Cherilyn Jolly-Nagel, president of the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association.

The end of the Canadian Wheat Board's monopoly means that farmers can now legally sell their wheat and barley to any buyer in Canada or the United States.

Matching up Saskatchewan’s hundreds of species of bees with the right plants could give Saskatchewan's agriculture sector a big shot in the arm.

Dr. Cory Sheffield is using a special digital imaging apparatus to catalog the 200 plus different bee species in Saskatchewan by taking super high-quality pictures of the different kinds of bees.

Sheffield is a bee specialist -- known as the "Curator of Invertebrate Zoology" -- who's now working at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum in Regina.