Lenders have come calling for Legumex Walker Inc.'s canola processing business. According to a statement from the company, Pacific Coast Canola has defaulted on its loans, owing an estimated US$54.6 million. AgCountry Farm Credit Services, which represents a syndicate of lenders under PCC's senior credit facility, has served notice demanding the repayment of all amounts... Read More

“Lean” principles originally developed to increase efficiency and reduce waste in the automobile manufacturing sector are being applied in many other business and process-related sectors, including primary agriculture. Toyota is often credited as the first company to develop and intentionally implement Lean principles in their assembly lines decades ago. Last year, the Agri-Food Management Institute,... Read More

Cargill held a grand opening this week for the company's canola refinery at Clavet, Saskatchewan. The facility is designed to refine approximately 450 thousand metric tonnes (1 billion pounds) of canola oil annually, making it Cargill's largest refinery in North America. It sits adjacent to Cargill's canola crush facility at Clavet, which after expanding in... Read More

What makes a fair marketplace? Whether you are here on the farm or catching a city cab, marketplace dynamics are a hot topic these days. Taxi drivers in Toronto are at their wits end as the popular ride-sharing site UberX is sucking up business. Unlike two taxi companies competing for business, UberX and cab companies... Read More

Editor's note: updated July 31st with comments from CHS. U.S. farmer cooperative CHS Inc. has entered a deal to acquire Northstar Agri Industries and its canola processing business in northern Minnesota from PICO Holdings, Inc. for approximately $127 million. Located less than 60 kilometres from the Canadian border at Hallock, Minnesota, the canola processing and... Read More

PRIDE Seeds and CANTERRA Seeds have announced a distribution agreement that brings the PRIDE Seeds portfolio of hybrid seed corn and soybean seed to CANTERRA Seeds dealers across Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. Stephen Denys, vice president of sales and marketing with PRIDE Seeds, says that research into earlier maturing seed corn hybrids and soybean varieties... Read More

DuPont Pioneer held a grand opening for the company’s new corn hybrid research centre near Lethbridge, Alberta on Wednesday. The 22,500 sq. foot facility is part of the company’s larger five-year, $35 million investment in research and development in Western Canada. As DuPont Pioneer Canada president Bryce Eger explains in the video below, the company... Read More

Editor’s note: This article was updated July 14th with the above interview with Dow Seeds General Manager Jeff Loessin. Dow AgroSciences has announced the joining of its Hyland and Mycogen seed businesses under a new brand in the Canadian market known as “Dow Seeds.” “To ensure all our customers have access to our best genetics... Read More

French farmer co-operative Limagrain is looking to build its presence in the Canadian cereal seed industry following the announcement last week of an alliance between the fourth largest seed company in the world and Winnipeg-based Canterra Seeds. Limagrain and Canterra are partnering in a joint venture breeding company known as Limagrain Cereals Research Canada. Limagrain... Read More