At a meeting held in Saskatoon, around 250 ranchers expressed their concerns about the end of a 75-year-old federal program.

The Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration was set up in the 30s to manage 2.3 million acres of grazing land. It was meant to help prevent the kind of erosion that led to the dust bowl of the Great Depression.

About 1.8 million of those acres are in Saskatchewan, divided into 63 pastures.

Federal Agriculture minister Gerry Ritz and his provincial counterpart, Lyle Stewart, were on hand at a cattle industry conference in Saskatoon to announce new research funding.

The feds are teaming up with the province to kick in $3.2 million to the Saskatchewan Agriculture Fund for 23 livestock and forage research projects.

The newly established Global Institute for Food Security at the University of Saskatchewan now has an executive director and CEO.

Roger Beachy began his new position on Jan. 1. He is internationally known for his research in food crops, production agriculture and the applications of biotechnology in agriculture, nutrition and human health.

On Thursday, the federal and provincial governments invested $6.5 million for 38 crop-related research projects. Several of which will take place at the Global Institute for Food Security.

The federal and provincial governments are investing $6.5 million into crop research in Saskatchewan.

The announcement was jointly made by federal agriculture minister Gerry Ritz and Saskatchewan agriculture minister Lyle Stewart on Thursday during Crop Production Week in Saskatoon.

The funds - 60 per cent come from the feds and 40 per cent come from the province - will support 38 different crop-related research projects.

It was all good news from agriculture minister Gerry Ritz this morning.

Speaking at a pulse grower's conference in Saskatoon, Ritz talked up the federal governments' accomplishments improving rail service, getting access to foreign markets and funding research for the agriculture sector.

He pointed to money the feds put into studying the health benefits of pulse crops, which include lentils, peas, and chickpeas, saying the ability to promote the crops as a healthy source of protein would help Canadian farmers move more product.

The federal government will phase in 16 information hubs for farmers, fishers and foresters needing advice on growing and selling their products.

Federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz made the announcement at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency laboratories in Saskatoon on Monday.

He said the centres will have expertise on newly developed crop strains, strategies to increase yields and best practices related to food safety.

A Shellbrook area farmer found guilty this week for selling stolen cows from a fellow farmer won’t serve any jail time.

Kelly Deck was charged with fraudulent marks on cattle, and was handed a six-month conditional sentence by a judge Wednesday at Court of Queen’s Bench in Prince Albert.

Between September and October of 2009, Glen Strube discovered that 10 of his bred heifers had gone missing from his herd.

Good news for cross country skiers in Saskatchewan this winter.

In November it was announced that cross country ski trails at Prince Albert National Park would no longer be groomed due to budget cuts at the park.

However it has just been announced that a volunteer group has in fact approached Parks Canada to take on the task and actually already started grooming some of the trails in the park.

It was announced late last week that the City of Regina is pumping $200,000 into Agribition to help make things better.

While this years show was once again a huge success, it certainly came with its share of problems, especially leaky roofs on a number of the buildings.

"We have to fix our aging infrastructure, no question," said Mayor Michael Fougere on Regina's Morning News on Tuesday. "The barns are leaking, we saw what happened, we don't want to see that."

City staff believe a $200,000 spending plan will help keep Agribition from leaving Regina after bad weather during this year's show once again revealed problems.

The massive international agriculture show has been dealing with leaky roofs in some facilities it uses on Evraz Place for years. Some bad weather last month showed how bad the situation really is.

"We had sort of a unique weather situation," concedes Agribition CEO Marty Seymour.