Manitoba's new agriculture minister says helping producers recover from the drought of 2021 and maintaining cross-border movement of feed and the province's agricultural exports are top priorities as he settles into the minister's office. Derek Johnson was sworn in as Manitoba's minister of agriculture last week, as the province's new premier, Heather Stefanson, appointed her... Read More
Category: Western Canada
2021 won't be forgotten anytime soon in the cattle world. The January 1, 2022, Cattle on Feed report from CanFax showed a 12 per cent increase in the number of cattle on feed from a year ago, with placements down a bit. As Anne Wasko of the Gateway Livestock Exchange explains in our latest Beef... Read More
Imports of feed into southern Alberta since November have been unprecedented, but delays in shipments, of both corn and distillers' dried grains (DDGs), from the U.S. have resulted in cattle feeders still having to scramble to find feed. As we reported earlier this week, many feedlots are waiting nervously for trains to arrive, with feed... Read More
Early in 2021, #buttergate caused a media frenzy when a foodie from western Canada suggested that butter seemed firmer at room temperature than before. Some suggested a link between farmers feeding palm oil and too-firm butter, but there was no readily available science to prove or disprove the theory. A year later, a working group... Read More
Regina is on its way to becoming the canola crush hub of the country. The most recent canola crush announcement, made last week, includes a 1.1 million metric ton capacity plant, funded by AGT Foods and Federated Co-operatives Limited. While announcements have been fast and furious the last few years, Chuck Penner of LeftField Commodities... Read More
Corn imports into Western Canada from the U.S. have risen dramatically following the 2021 drought, but cattle feeders in Alberta say unpredictable shipments are not keeping up with demand. In some cases, feedlots say they are scraping together the last of their feed supplies, and are banking on delayed trains still arriving in time to... Read More
The Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), Marie-Claude Bibeau has announced the 18 semi-finalists selected under the Novel Technologies Streams to find new solutions to food waste. According to AAFC, every year over half of Canada's food supply is wasted, and nearly $50 billion of that wasted food is avoidable. "Every single submission we... Read More
It's always amazing to see how much can transpire in just one week. Since Peter "Wheat Pete" Johnson returned from Montana last week, much of Ontario and the Prairies got a foot of snow or more, someone fell asleep on the listener line, and Pete owes someone a steak dinner over Ontario's average corn yields.... Read More
Precision Planting is entering the sprayer technology market, with the unveiling of several products focused on improving the sprayer operation and data collection. The company, known for its planting technology, made the announcement at its annual winter conference Jan. 18 at the company's headquarters in Tremont, Illinois. To start, Precision is planning to offer a... Read More
On January 15th, Canada officially put in place a vaccine mandate for cross-border truck drivers. The United States is planning on doing the same starting January 22nd. Cam Dahl, general manager of the Manitoba Pork Council, says from the perspective of the pork industry, the entire system is already strained and it's uncertain know what... Read More