The fundraising efforts to start work on Phase 2 of the Multi-Use Facility are now well underway, and one of the most popular of those had a banner finish this year.

Two more doctors are leaving their practice in Kindersley, one to find greener pastures and one retiring, which is adding to patients' current frustration in Kindersley.

A new electronic case management system designed to keep track of children in care of the Ministry of Social Services is now up and running across the province.

The Saskatchewan Roughriders announced today they've signed four more players to contracts as training camp approaches.

The Los Angeles Kings are making it look easy. Dwight King scored the winner early in the third as Los Angeles edged Phoenix 2-1. Goaltender Jonathan Quick stayed hot, making 18 saves as the Kings took a step toward its first Stanley Cup final in 19 years. They lead the Western Conference finals 3-0.

The Blue Jays won without infielders Adam Lind and Brett Lawrie. Drew Hutchison won his third game of the season as Toronto beat the New York Yankees 4-1.

The latest Agriculture Census shows the size of the average farm is increasing in Saskatchewan.

 As a result, producers have more acres to cover in the same amount of time. Now there’s more interest in trying to increase coverage and efficiency.

Dr. Tom Wolf is a research scientist in the area of spray technology with Agriculture and Agri-food Canada.

He says it’s important to choose the right time of day to spray, adding that there’s a lot of temptation now with auto-steer to do more night spraying.

"I think the really big issue is that there are typically temperature inversions at night and early morning," explains Wolf. "Those can actually lead to more drift damage than spraying in the wind would have caused. The best time to spray is on a sunny day with a bit of a breeze. The sun and the breeze together disperse the spray so it doesn't cause damage and it dilutes it very rapidly."

Wolf adds it’s important that producers know their sprayer, select the right nozzle for the job and are fully aware of  the products mode of action.

Wolf also would like producers to know that increasing your speed does not increase your coverage or efficiency.

"You could increase the efficiency with which you load up your tank," says Wolf. "There are new technologies out there from some manufacturers that will decrease your loading time to four minutes. Now, if you shave four minutes off every load, that has a tremendous impact on your productivity - it's about the same as travelling 50 percent faster."

He recommends travelling at a reasonable speed in the field of about 12 to 15 miles per hour, or 20 to 25 kilometres per hour. 

Farmers have had some great weather as they work on getting this year’s crop in the ground.

Producers also want to be aware of some early season insects that could pose some problems. 

Provincial Insect Specialist Scott Hartley says there are already signs of diamondback moths and cutworms.

"We have already had some reports of cutworms," says Harltey. "We will see down the road what the climatic conditions will do to affect these cutworms. But, it is one that people should be watching for - both below ground feeding and above ground feeding."

Hartley says with the high cutworm numbers this year, producers are being asked to submit samples.

Cutworm projects have been set up across the prairies to determine the various species and how best to handle them.

Hartley says the key to protecting the crop throughout the growing season is to get out of the truck and walk through the field, looking for any potential insect concerns or other signs of stress on the crop.