Calling it a "watershed moment," five Manitoba farm groups have published their plan to amalgamate into a single provincial organization. The proposal was released on Thursday after nine months of meetings between board and staff representatives from Manitoba Wheat and Barley Growers, Manitoba Flax Growers, the National Sunflower Association of Canada, Manitoba Corn Growers and... Read More

Winnipeg-based grain and forage harvesting equipment manufacturer MacDon has entered an agreement to be sold to Linamar Corporation for C$1.2 billion. Linamar is based in Guelph, and employs 25,000 people around the world — mostly in automotive parts and industrial manufacturing. The company also owns a harvest equipment business in Hungary, which will be combined... Read More

Federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau shared new details on his government's proposed tax policy changes for income splitting or sprinkling on Wednesday, the last day before MPs head home for Christmas. The revised changes include "bright line" tests designed to determine whether a business owner's family members make meaningful contributions to the business, and are... Read More

Farmers and grain shippers won't be getting long-awaited changes to grain transportation rules for Christmas this year. Bill C-49, the Transportation Modernization Act, cleared the House of Commons at the end of October, but has only reached second reading in the Senate. Transport Minister Marc Garneau, who has been urging the Senate to approve the... Read More

The Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef (CRSB) today launched its Certified Sustainable Beef Framework (and a new website) at the group's annual meeting in Edmonton today. The Framework centres around the five Global Principles of Sustainable Beef: natural resources; people and community; animal health and welfare; food; and efficiency and innovation. “We know that consumers... Read More

Statistics Canada published higher-than-expected estimates for several major Canadian crops in its crop production report on Wednesday. The report includes the final production estimates for 2017 (although they can still be revised for two years.) For canola, StatsCan estimates production of 21.3 million tonnes, up from 19.7 million in the September StatsCan report and 19.6... Read More