The federal government has committed to investing up to $9.2 million to fund up to 700 new positions for young people in the agriculture industry through its Youth Employment and Skills Program. Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau made the announcement on Tuesday. "During this unprecedented time, our food producers are working hard to feed Canada, while... Read More

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has created a temporary ministerial exemption process that opens the door to inter-provincial movement of meat and poultry products from establishments that are not federally-licensed. Normally, meat from provincially-inspected facilities is not allowed to be sold beyond a province's boundary, but the federal agency is offering an exemption if... Read More

The federal government says it's still committed to completing its review of the legislation that applies to Canada's grain industry, but the timeline is now unknown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada launched the latest review of the Canada Grain Act in March 2019. Together with the Canadian Grain Commission, AAFC started... Read More

Western Canada's soybean and corn seed industry is seeing some changes, as Delmar Commodities is dropping its Legend Seeds business and signing new distribution agreements with Sevita International Corporation and Horizon Seeds Canada Inc. Delmar will also be rebranding its Legend Seeds Canada trade name to "Ceres Global Seeds," reflecting the name of the Minneapolis,... Read More

Manitoba-based pork producer and processor HyLife is expanding its processing capacity with the acquisition of a slaughter plant in the U.S. The company says it is partnering with Glen Taylor, and purchasing a 75 per cent equity stake in Prime Pork LLC from the Taylor Corporation. Prime Pork operates a recently-renovated processing plant at Windom,... Read More

Canadian-developed autonomous field unit DOT has made its debut in Ontario, beginning with a commercial fertilizer application in Chatham-Kent. This first autonomous unit is owned by Haggerty Creek and contributes to operator efficiency, says Chuck Baresich, general manager of Haggerty Creek. "The operator can be answering calls and providing service to customers while the machine... Read More

It has been a real struggle for meat packers to hold or build slaughter capacity during the COVID-19 outbreak. Not too long ago analysts thought slaughter levels would not increase to 80% of capacity until mid summer but in both Canada and the U.S., the weekly slaughter is climbing back faster than first thought. The... Read More

Paterson Grain says it has shipped the largest-ever grain train on the Canadian Pacific Railway (CP Rail) network. According to the company, the train consisted of 167 new high-capacity hopper cars, and carried 16,313 metric tonnes of grain from Paterson's Foothills Terminal in Bowden, Alta., to the Alliance Grain Terminal in Vancouver. Paterson reports the... Read More