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.

The province is making much more than wheat and barley and some of the products made in Saskatchewan might surprise you.

As Saskatchewan celebrates manufacturing week, it turns out it is a growing sector of the economy.

Scott Summach, sector manager of manufacturing for the ministry of economy, says the key areas include machinery, transportation and industrial equipment and agriculture. Some emerging areas include aerospace and defence for the Canadian military and electronics and instrumentation.

A leader and defender of the cattle industry died Monday morning away at the age of 70. 

Neil Jahnke is being remembered today as the man who kept the calm throughout the mad cow disease era in western Canada while he was president of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association.

Harold Martens, the current president of the Saskatchewan Stock Growers Association, says BSE was a difficult thing for producers to handle.

“The prices were poor. He was a stable influence in all of that period of time. I think that was a tremendous asset to the cattle industry,” said Martens.

A recommendation for a provincial bounty on coyotes was debated amongst the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities (SARM) earlier this month.

The vote was a result of farmers hoping to exterminate coyotes that damage their livestock, costing them hundreds and thousands of dollars. The resolution for bounty on coyotes passed by just five votes and is now heading to Regina for approval.

However, coyote experts agree, a cull will not do much to lower the population of coyotes in the province.

The organizers behind the Canadian Western Agribition expect Saturday will be their busiest day yet as the 2012 edition of North America's best beef show wraps up.

A snowfall in the middle of the trade show did hit attendance numbers a bit, but Agribition C.E.O. Marty Seymour says numbers on Friday made up for the loss.