Todd Lewis found himself at the end of the driveway on his family's farm near Gray, Sask., this week watching a motorcade pull up. Among the people climbing out of the vehicles parked along the gravel road was Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — a rare visit to a farm by a sitting prime minister. Accompanying... Read More
Category: Western Canada
Reports the White House was finalizing an executive order to withdraw the U.S. from the North American Free Trade Agreement sent shockwaves through the markets and export-reliant sectors of the economy, including agriculture, on Wednesday. However, after President Trump spoke with leaders from Canada and Mexico on Wednesday night, the White House issued a statement... Read More
Do I plant a workhorse or a racehorse hybrid? That’s a typical question corn growers contemplate when making seed choices. But with the growth of precision farming and advancing genetic progress, there’s now a new question to contemplate: should I plant a fixed, flex, or semi-flex hybrid? In this edition of Real Agriculture Corn School,... Read More
President Trump received his strongest warning to date from the U.S. agriculture sector on Wednesday after it was reported the White House was finalizing a plan to withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement. After speaking with Prime Minister Trudeau and Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto late Wednesday, the White House issued a statement... Read More
It's the last week of April and not only is there crop in the ground in areas of southern Ontario, but there's even a few corn and soy plants poking above ground! Don't feel bad, though, if that's not where you're at — there's plenty of field prep and planning still happening across not just... Read More
Representatives from Alberta's crop commissions held a conference call with Agriculture Minister Oneil Carlier and senior officials with Alberta's Agricultural Financial Services Corporation on Wednesday to discuss the need for intervention to help producers with the one million acres of 2016 crop still in the field. "Team Alberta" — the provincial canola, wheat, barley and... Read More
Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay announced federal funding of up to $5.2 million over the next two years for the Agricultural Youth Green Jobs Initiative on Tuesday. The program makes funds available to farms and organizations involved in agriculture to hire youth for work that's deemed beneficial to the environment, and follows a $1.9 million commitment... Read More
President Trump's attacks on Canadian dairy are short-sighted and don't reflect the reality of the Canada-U.S. dairy relationship, says former Canadian agriculture minister Gerry Ritz. "This is typical President Trump. It's all shock and awe, throw down the gauntlet and then really not have a lot of details that his assumptions are based on," he... Read More
You can't really blame mice and deer from taking a bite out of overwintering canola swaths — your crop is literally a giant buffet for them. And, of course, animals have never heard the saying "don't poop where you eat," and so, to add insult to injury, not only has overwintered canola been downgraded by... Read More
The Trump administration expressed its displeasure with Canadian dairy policy several times on Monday, coinciding with the announcement of new countervail duties on imports of Canadian softwood lumber. "It has been a bad week for U.S.-Canada trade relations," said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross in a statement. "Last Monday, it became apparent that Canada... Read More