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Better Pork Featured Articles

Better Pork magazine is published bimonthly. After each edition is published, we share featured articles online.


Venting on the weather

Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Farmer Gus Wickstrom was a renowned pig spleen weather forecaster in the village of Tompkins, Sask., having learned his skills from his Scandinavian grandfather. He died in 2007, but his nephew is carrying on, according to the Globe and Mail.

While the older Wickstrom slaughtered hogs in late fall and examined their organs (divided into six pieces, thickened pieces represented cold months), Jeff Woodward observes pig spleens and issues predictions on New Year's Day. The forecast is recommended for a 200-mile radius from where a pig was grown.

Gus had taken to importing spleens from other parts of the country and made predictions there as well. Jeff does the same. In 2015, he predicted a colder winter for Eastern Canada than for his part of Saskatchewan, which wasn't exactly right. (It was cold all over.) But that didn't hurt sales of T-shirts and logoed sunglasses from his website, www.pigspleen.ca

Woodward is a water quality engineer working for Environment Canada, and plays on that.

"Environment Canada has thousands of dollars' worth of weather instruments and all I have is a $2 pig spleen. I can compete with them and better their accuracy," says the website.BP

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Wednesday, August 20, 2025

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According to the AFSC and Alberta Government Crop Reporting Survey, as of August 12, Alberta’s 2025 harvest was well underway with 2 percent of crops combined across the province, consistent with 5- and 10-year averages. The South Region leads with 6 percent harvested, followed by the Peace... Read this article online

Grain company license updates

Tuesday, August 19, 2025

The Canadian Grain Commission (CGC) has provided updates related to two Western Canadian grain companies. As of Aug. 15, a Saskatchewan company had its license class changes. C-Merak Innovations in Tisdale had its primary elevator license changed to a process elevator license. A... Read this article online

2025 Livestock Tax Deferral Regions Announced

Tuesday, August 19, 2025

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) has published the initial list of prescribed regions eligible for the 2025 Livestock Tax Deferral provision, a key support measure for Canadian livestock producers grappling with the impacts of extreme weather. “As we continue to see the very... Read this article online

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