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Key funding for Alberta's agriculture sector

For the first time in ten years, Alberta is looking at a balanced budget for the year ahead.

The Province is forecasting a $500 million dollar surplus for 2022 the increase in revenues mainly due to the increase in oil prices.

Agriculture Minister Nate Horner says as part of Alberta's Recovery Plan they are working to attract $1.4 billion in investment, creating more than 2000 jobs in emerging sectors like hemp, agtech and value-added processing by 2023-24.

Included in the 2022 Ag Budget is $3.7 million for producer driven research thru the Results Driven Agriculture Research program with a goal for the ag sector to improve productivity, profitability, competitiveness and sustainability.

There's also $15 million dollars for the Investment and Growth fund to create a new rural investment attraction stream to attract investment and create jobs, the funding coming through the Alberta at Work Investment Fund.

The Province also tackling the growing concern around the shortage of large animal vets by investing $59 million over the next three years to expand the Veterinary School at the University of Calgary.

Horner says great things are happening.

"To date, our $1.4 billion investment targeted toward value-added processing has led to 2,128 new jobs and $886 million in new investments."

He notes they thought the funding would create more than 2000 jobs over the entire project and are already past that initial estimate.

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Trending Video

Back On The Fields | Cutting Alfalfa Hay| Crop Talk

Video: Back On The Fields | Cutting Alfalfa Hay| Crop Talk

We are cutting our second-cut alfalfa hay! Our machinery hasn't been repaired, but the weather is clear, so we take our opportunity to get back on the fields making hay. The alfalfa crop was ready to harvest, and any delays would result in poor quality feed for our sheep, so we decided to go ahead and get that mower rolling. We have a little crop talk about how we cut the hay with our John Deere hydrostatic mower, how we lay the hay out flat in rows to help it dry quicker, and how the two different plantings in that hay field have developed at varying rates and densities. We discuss the quality of the alfalfa hay and show how differing percentages of grasses mixed in with the alfalfa make a difference in the volume of the hay harvested. Hay is the primary feed source on our sheep farm. Getting it done just right is imperative for sheep farming, sheep health, and sheep care. Quality feed sets the stage for producing productive and profitable sheep and allows for feeding throughout the winter season when pasture grazing is no longer an option for those farmers raising sheep in cold climates such as Canada. While in the hay field, we also have a look at the adjacent corn crop and marvel at how well it has developed in such a short period of time.