Ending a long fight with congestive heart failure, Henry died Friday in Saskatoon at age 83, having continued to write until very shortly before his passing.

Born in 1940 at Milden, about 100 km southwest of Saskatoon, Henry studied agriculture at the University of Saskatchewan, earning a master’s degree in soil science in 1968.

Earlier this year he recalled how, in the wake of the financial and agronomic devastation of Prairie farming in the 1930s, “my dad showed me the cheque that cleared the mortgage (and) added, ‘there will never be another mortgage on this farm.’ I respected that decision but it was part of the reason I went off to U of S after two years on the farm.”

At U of S, he joined the soil science department in 1968 as an assistant, en route to becoming a full professor and extension specialist there in 1980.

The Saskatchewan Agricultural Hall of Fame, into which Henry was inducted in 2004, said his research on irrigation and on crops’ potassium requirements “showed the way to increased production” while his research on the underlying cause of soil salinity “provided a major breakthrough in the management of saline soils.”

Although Henry retired from the U of S in 1996, his outreach to farmers continued in Grainews, where his soils column has appeared regularly for the past 48 years. Former Grainews editor Kari Belanger in 2022 hailed Henry for his “extraordinary ability to take complex information about soils and convey these ideas in a manner anyone can understand.”

His contributions to Grainews have included a Prairie stubble soil moisture map, released annually since 1979 and used as a reference tool across the industry.

His published works also include Henry’s Handbook of Soil and Water, which has undergone multiple printings since its first appearance in 2003, and for which the copyright was recently transferred to Saskatoon-based Croptimistic Technology to continue its publication.

In 2000, Henry also wrote and published Catalogue Houses: Eaton’s and Others, a book about the “catalogue homes” or “kit homes” sold to Prairie customers by Eaton’s and other retailers in the first half of the 20th century.

Henry also continued farming on three quarters at Dundurn, about 30 km south of Saskatoon, often describing that site as a “field lab” for his further research. He also continued consulting privately in Canada and overseas, including in Tanzania, China and Eswatini (then called Swaziland).

In his professional life Henry also served as president of the Saskatoon branch and provincial council of the Saskatchewan Institute of Agrologists, president of the Saskatchewan Agriculture Graduates Association and chairman of the Saskatchewan Advisory Fertilizer Council.

Other accolades for his work included an honorary doctor of laws degree from the U of S (2022), honorary life membership in the Canadian Society of Extension (1994), fellowship with the Agricultural Institute of Canada (1989) and the Agronomy Merit Medal from Western Cooperative Fertilizers (1985).

At Henry’s request, a private family interment will be held with no funeral. Before his passing, he wrote that “anyone wishing to connect with the spirit of the deceased” could watch his 2022 convocation address to the U of S College of Agriculture and Bioresources and Western College of Veterinary Medicine (roll ahead to about the 46-minute mark) — and/or listen to this.

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Sirski was best known to farmers in his role as editor of Grainews from 1995 to 2006 and as the farm journal’s “Off-Farm Investments” columnist up until his death Feb. 10 in Winnipeg at age 73.

Born at Norquay in eastern Saskatchewan and raised on the farm near Dauphin, Man., Sirski became a provincial ag rep in the Vita area of southeastern Manitoba after earning a degree in agricultural economics from the University of Manitoba in 1970.

Sirski later worked for the federal/provincial Small Farm Development Program, consulting with new and small-scale farmers on management matters such as farm credit, tax law, farm transfers and intergenerational farming arrangements.

In 1979 Sirski became managing editor of Grainews, the Prairie farm journal for Winnipeg-based United Grain Growers. From there he took a dual role as editorial director for UGG’s Farm Business Communications publishing division in 1994 and as Grainews’ editor starting in 1995. (Click here for remembrances of Andy Sirski from Glacier FarmMedia editor Lee Hart.)

During his stint at Grainews, Sirski encouraged farmers to develop what he described as a “five-legged stool” of financial planning, the legs of which included the farm; another skill; insurance; off-farm investments such as stocks; and education savings for children.

After his retirement in 2006, Sirski offered thoughts on investments through his column in Grainews, now published by Glacier FarmMedia, and in a self-published newsletter, StocksTalk, in which he wrote of the value of a disciplined approach to managing investments, buying and selling stocks based on technical signals.

Sirski was honoured in 2012 by the Manitoba Farm Writers and Broadcasters Association with a lifetime membership, at which time he encouraged young people to seek a degree or diploma in agriculture.

“The industry is blooming and offers many opportunities for people with the right set of skills and attitude,” he said.

Writing in 2013 about things he’d wished he’d learned 30 years earlier in developing financial skills, he urged readers to “find someone to talk to,” adding he aimed to be that person for his own family.

“Most of us have had someone to talk to over the years. But usually it was someone who was trying to sell us something, or someone who had fears of their own and could only give us one side of the story,” he wrote.

“By ‘someone to talk to’ I mean someone who had failed once or twice, had succeeded in the four aspects of life and had a vision of the future.”

The funeral service for Sirski will be held Friday, Feb. 17 at 10 a.m. at Holy Eucharist Parish in Winnipeg. — AGCanada.com Network

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Anderson, who had started ranching in about 1937 near Fir Mountain, about 170 km southwest of Moose Jaw, is well known to followers of this website as a longtime columnist for the Cattleman’s Corner section of Grainews starting in 1975.

At the regional and national level, Anderson served as president of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association (1976-77), the Saskatchewan Stock Growers Association (1969-72) and the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities (1977-78) and as a chairman of the Saskatchewan Beef Stabilization Board.

Anderson also served as a delegate to the Saskatchewan and Canadian Federations of Agriculture and on several provincial agriculture advisory committees.

Among the accolades Anderson received over a lifetime in the industry were the Centennial Medal (1967); an honorary doctor of laws degree from the University of Saskatchewan; an honorary membership in the Northern International Livestock Hall of Fame; an honour scroll from the Saskatchewan Livestock Board (1984); induction in the Saskatchewan Agricultural Hall of Fame (1987) and the Saskatchewan Order of Merit (1997); and membership in the Order of Canada (1999).

Anderson also wrote three books, Beyond The Range: A History of the Saskatchewan Stock Growers (1988), Grass Roots (1996), and Grass and Grain, a collection of his Grainews columns (2009).

According to the SAHF, Anderson acquired his first quarter-section of land in the Wood Mountain Uplands at age 17, and by age 20 was an established shortgrass sheep rancher.

He then served with the First Canadian Parachute Battalion during the Second World War, parachuting in June 1944 into France. He was wounded and, days later, captured and spent 10 months in a prison camp in Germany.

“Did we do any good? We were out of action after two days,” Anderson wrote in Grainews in 2012. “However, it is believed by the military and other people that planeloads like ours and others confused the Germans so much that several divisions were held back from the front and thus our bridgehead at Normandy was made secure.”

Returning to southwestern Saskatchewan, Anderson resumed sheep and cattle ranching with his wife Lorene, who passed away in 2007 at age 87. He was elected in 1946 to municipal council for the RM of Waverley, where he served 40 years, including 27 as reeve.

Anderson also ran in two provincial elections and federally as a Tory candidate in the Assiniboia riding in 1972, where he was defeated by NDP MP Bill Knight.

Anderson also served as president of the Fir Mountain Co-op, Fir Mountain Hall board and Glentworth branch of the Royal Canadian Legion, and sat on the Fir Mountain United Church board. In his citation for the Order of Canada, he was also credited for helping to plan and build Waverley Gardens, a community skating and curling rink.

In 2012, Anderson noted his 26 grandchildren and great-grandchildren were living and working “scattered over much of the world,” and noted that “even through the years when I was tied down to the ranch, I travelled when I could and I always wanted to see what was over the next hill.”

Anderson’s memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. on Dec. 10 at the United Church on First Street West in Glentworth, with interment to follow at Fir Mountain. — AGCanada.com Network

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FBC, an arm of Glacier FarmMedia, earned a total of 10 gold, silver and bronze awards on Oct. 1 from the Canadian Farm Writers Federation (CFWF), which held its annual conference that weekend in Saskatoon.

FBC’s Quebec farm journal, Le Bulletin des agriculteurs, also earned three awards on Oct. 7 from CFWF’s Quebec counterpart, the Association des communicateurs et redacteurs de l’agroalimentaire (ACRA). This year’s ACRA annual meeting was held at Saint-Jean-de-Matha, west of Trois-Rivieres.

Le Bulletin won the Prix Roger-Blais, a prize honouring farm newsletters, for its July 6 e-newsletter. Le Bulletin writer Marie-Josee Parent also earned two Prix Moise Cossette awards, one for technical feature writing and the other a special “jurors’ favourite” prize.

At the CFWF awards banquet in Saskatoon, Grainews editor Leeann Minogue and Country Guide contributor Gerald Pilger earned the gold and silver Frank Jacobs Award respectively for best press column.

Writing in Country Guide, Jay Whetter, editor of the Canola Council of Canada’s Canola Watch, and Canadian Cattlemen contributor Madeleine Baerg earned the CFWF’s gold and silver Jack Cram Award respectively for monthly press reporting.

Manitoba Co-operator reporter Shannon VanRaes, as part of a Glacier FarmMedia analysis of the proposed Canada/EU free trade agreement, and Alberta Farmer Express reporter Jennifer Blair won the CFWF’s gold and bronze Q.H. Martinson Award for weekly press reporting. VanRaes also earned the silver John Phillips Award for news photography.

Country Guide field editor Ralph Pearce and Grainews columnist Sarah Weigum also earned the CFWF’s silver and bronze Peter Lewington Award for best technical feature, while Country Guide contributor Angela Lovell won the silver Dick Beamish Award for press feature writing.

CFWF, ACRA and the Eastern Canada Farm Writers’ Association (ECFWA) plan to hold their next annual conferences jointly in September 2017 in Quebec City.

FBC’s Grainews, Country Guide and Manitoba Co-operator are also nominated this year for a total of four Canadian Online Publishing Awards (COPAs), to be announced next month in Toronto. — AGCanada.com Network

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The COPAs, to be presented Nov. 7 in Toronto, are a juried competition to promote and support Canada’s digital publishing industry, and are operated by Mississauga-based publishing sector magazine Masthead.

Finalists for the 2016 COPAs were announced Wednesday in the competition’s three divisions: Blue (Business/B2B/Trade/Academic), Red (Consumer) and Green (News).

The four COPA finalists from FBC in the Blue division this year include Country-Guide.ca, for Best Trade Media Website, and Grainews.ca, for Best Editorial Packaging.

The E-Quip Blog with Scott Garvey, a farm machinery and equipment blog by Grainews machinery editor Garvey, is a finalist in the same division for Best Blog or Column.

Also, in the Best Video Content category, FBC’s ManitobaCooperator.ca is represented by Titans of the Garden, a segment produced by Co-operator reporter Lorraine Stevenson following a grower of giant pumpkins from planting through to the weigh-in at Manitoba’s prestigious Roland Pumpkin Fair.

Various websites and mobile apps produced by Glacier Media’s FBC division have earned one gold and five silver COPAs in the Blue division over the last three years. — AGCanada.com Network

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