In the last federal election, Saskatchewan and Alberta sent zero Liberals to Ottawa, leaving the Prairie Provinces under-represented in cabinet. The government's answer to the issue was to name Manitoba MP Jim Carr as Special Representative for the Prairies. So, what does that actually mean? Jim Carr explains that it's his role to not only... Read More
Category: Western Canada
Federated Co-operatives Limited (FCL) and Blair's Family of Companies (Blair's) have entered into a joint venture that will own and operate Blair's seven ag retail locations at Lanigan, Nokomis, Watrous, Liberty, McLean, Lipton, and Rosthern, Sask. Ron Healey, FCL vice-president of ag and consumer business, says the venture will benefit local Co-op member-owners and the... Read More
NEVONEX — a company that enables integration of digital services directly into field machines — has signed an agreement that will see the integration of the AGvisorPRO app inside the NEVONEX system. Powered by Bosch, the NEVONEX platform is a secure framework with End-2-End infrastructure. Robert Saik, founder and CEO of AGvisorPRO, says through their... Read More
The CropConnect Conference has received its money back after being scammed of nearly $200 thousand in a case involving fake emails purporting to be from the hotel in Winnipeg where the annual farm conference has been held, a numbered company based in Quebec, and an apparent farmland deal in Africa. Forged emails resulted in CropConnect... Read More
Chances are, if you live in a rural setting, you've either impacted by rural crime either directly or indirectly. We have commodities in the bin or on the ground, and where the market is currently sitting, they are likely of high value. On January 30, Pincher Creek RCMP responded to a complaint of mischief at... Read More
It's no surprise that African swine fever (ASF) is continuing to impact pork production in Asia and Europe, as well as global trade flows. COVID-19 continues to impact the entire supply chain too, from producers all the way to consumers. However, there may be some good news here, as Rabobank is predicting demand to rebound... Read More
Not only is Tom Vilsack set to return as U.S. secretary of agriculture, he's also open to bringing back U.S. country-of-origin labelling (COOL) for beef and pork; but only if it doesn't lead to retaliation from trading partners, such as Canada, under World Trade Organization (WTO) rules. Vilsack, who was ag secretary when the Obama... Read More
We've now seen two deadlines for changes to AgriStability; one near the end of last year, and a public deadline that was set for the end of January for provinces to either agree or acknowledge that they were considering the proposal. Both deadlines have come and gone, which begs the question: where are we at... Read More
It has been a really tough ninety days if you are a die-hard believer in the need to develop a code of practice for grain production in Canada. Although other agricultural sectors have had national codes for years, the concept has really struggled to gain support with grain farmers on the Prairies in and outside... Read More
At least two of the three Prairie provinces that have been holding out on accepting the federal government's offer to make changes to the AgriStability business risk management program say they're still considering the proposal. In mid-January, federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau gave the provinces a deadline for the end of the month to indicate... Read More