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Cattle markets shift from bear to bull - ranchers set to benefit

What a difference a year makes.

A year ago, ranchers were being squeezed by tight margins and profits - if any - were slim at best.

This year market prices for calves have been rocketing upwards into the stratosphere and with any luck later this fall ranchers are set to cash in.

“There is a fair bit of optimism this year. The markets have improved. They are much stronger this year right across the board compared to a year ago,” Garner Deobald president of the Saskatchewan Stock Growers Association said.

The two day AGM was held Monday and Tuesday, June 5-6, at the Moose Jaw Exhibition Grounds.

Improved soil moisture conditions, as well as access to water, has most ranchers looking forward to what is shaping up to be a better year, he said.

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Learning to Wrench From Dad the Hard Way

Video: Learning to Wrench From Dad the Hard Way



Harvest is a week out and the farm picked this week to fall apart. The truck needs a battery, the barn curtain's got a problem, and the corn and beans are telling us we're out of time to get it all fixed.

So it's a full day of wrenching. Tork supervises while I get the truck back running, then we're out at the hog barn where one rusted up part has the whole curtain system hung up. Ladder work, cable work, and a little dad-and-son disagreement about the right way to do it. We close it out walking the fields, shelling beans and checking corn, because whether everything's fixed or not, harvest starts when harvest starts.

Chapters: 00:00 Everything breaks the week before harvest 01:00 Tork supervises while I fix the truck 12:30 Out to the barn to find the curtain problem 14:30 One rusty part hung up the whole curtain 20:00 Running the curtain cable from the ladder 24:00 Walking the beans and corn before harvest 26:30 Wrapping up

We're a 6th generation family farm in southeast Iowa showing the real ups and downs of pig farming and row crop farming. No script, just the work. Subscribe and follow along.

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