Farmers in Western Canada are struggling to understand the news that two cows and one bull died as a result of consuming treated canola seed that was illegally dumped in a pasture. Bill Laing, a farmer from near Harris, SK, was shocked to find a dead cow on his pasture last week. It's never easy... Read More
Category: Western Canada
SGS announced the acquisition of BioVision Seed Labs on Friday. Founded in 1996, BioVision employs 20 staff between its headquarters in Sherwood Park and facilities in Winnipeg and Grand Prairie. The company offers seed, grain and soil testing across a broad variety of crops. Its labs and experts are accredited under CFIA, CSI and ISO... Read More
How often do you stop and take time to evaluate how well your farm business is performing? And how do you determine whether an area of the business is performing well or needing improvement? The first step in benchmarking a farm's financial performance is to compare it to itself, to understand historical performance. From there,... Read More
Saskatchewan Pulse Growers (SPG) says it has licensed the distribution rights for select newer pea, lentil and chickpea varieties outside of Saskatchewan to SeCan and SeedNet. Since 1997, SPG has funded the pulse breeding program at the University of Saskatchewan's Crop Development Centre (CDC) in exchange for commercial rights to pulse crop varieties developed at... Read More
“The silos of agriculture are crumbling, like it or not," says Eric Fridfinnson, chair of the Manitoba Flax Growers Association — one of five commodity groups in Manitoba that are working toward amalgamating. "It’s a change we’ve all observed over the years,” he continues. “This approach – the approach we’ve been working on – has... Read More
With memories of combines getting stuck, high disease levels and all the problems that come with excess moisture fresh in many farmers' minds, the dry conditions through much of Western Canada in 2017 were a sharp reminder of why moisture conservation is fundamental to farming on the prairies. "One of the key learnings from this... Read More
Some of Canada's largest grocery suppliers and retailers are involved in an investigation by the Competition Bureau over concerns about price-fixing in the bread aisle. The Competition Bureau has received search warrants from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice based on evidence that there are "reasonable grounds to believe that certain individuals and companies have... Read More
Richardson International has reached a deal to acquire CHS Canada's 10 crop input retail outlets in Western Canada. The deal signals the exit of the American farmer-owned co-op from the crop retail business on the Canadian prairies, after entering with the acquisition of independent retailer DynAgra Corp in 2012. "CHS is grateful to the growers... Read More
Despite major concerns from the farm community, Manitoba's agriculture minister says the provincial government was left with no choice but to move forward with implementing a carbon tax. "If we say no, then we'll get Trudeau," says Ralph Eichler in the interview below, referring to the Prime Minister's national carbon price mandate. Eichler joined us... Read More
The dust is starting to settle after Finance Minister Bill Morneau's flurry of announcements backtracking on the federal government's proposed small business tax changes. Now that the news conferences are over and we've had a few days to analyze the changes to the changes, how will the updates affect farm businesses? First of all, we... Read More