Louis Dreyfus Commodities today announced the appointment of Mayo Schmidt as the company’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), effective January 5th, 2015. Schmidt will succeed interim CEO Claude Ehlinger, who will continue in his existing roles of Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Louis Dreyfus Commodities and Non-Executive Chairman of the Board of Biosev. Ehlinger has also... Read More
Category: Western Canada
Lower commodity prices will likely lead farmers to adopt technology and practices that maximize fertilizer efficacy, says the head of a North Dakota-based precision ag machinery manufacturer. Speaking at the AgriInnovation Forum in Winnipeg last week, Howard Dahl, president and CEO of Amity Technology, said he sees a period of tighter margins driving producers to... Read More
Today, the United States officially lodged an appeal to the third and most recent World Trade Organization ruling on Country of Origin Labelling (COOL). Canadian Ministers are not pleased with the announced appeal. The Honourable Ed Fast, Minister of International Trade and the Honourable Gerry Ritz, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food issued the following statement... Read More
From water barrel races to full-contact jousting, Canadian Western Agribition is boasting all kinds of new events this year. Included in that line-up is the thinkAg Career and Education Expo, which launched November 26, 2014. “The agriculture industry offers challenging and exciting careers in a number of different fields,” said Federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz.... Read More
The Ontario government's plans to reduce the use of neonicotinoid seed treatments, the passage of the Bill C-18 (the Agricultural Growth Act) in the House of Commons and actual full-contact jousting at Canada's largest livestock show — Lyndsey Smith and Debra Murphy join Kelvin Heppner on TWORA for November 27th, 2014: Related: Grown-Up Bullying Alive... Read More
Representatives from across Canada's grain sector are in Ottawa today for the launch of the Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Crops. The group will serve as a forum for "advancing, reporting on and communicating the sustainability of Canadian grain production." "Increasingly, our customers are factoring in environmental and social considerations when sourcing products," said Chantelle Donahue,... Read More
Need an excuse to take a trip to a warmer place this winter? Can it be justified as a field trip for the farm? Cold temperatures might be a good enough reason to head south, and maybe it’s easy for him to say because he’s newly retired, but the former CEO of the Canadian International... Read More
Canada's two major railways have changed they way they process requests for grain cars in Western Canada. To deter shippers from ordering more cars than they can handle, both Canadian National and Canadian Pacific are capping the number of outstanding orders a grain shipper can have in their systems. As of September 14th, the total... Read More
Western Canadian farmers know all too well what kind of impact the logistical challenges of the last year had on local grain prices, but how did the rail backlog impact international customers? How concerned are they about the reliability of Canadian grain shipments? To get a feel for what overseas buyers are saying, I spoke... Read More
SaskCanola has announced Janice Tranberg will serve as the group's new executive director, effective January 5, 2015. Tranberg most recently served as an assistant deputy minister for the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture, and was responsible for three branches: Crops and Irrigation, Agriculture Research, and Regional Services. Prior to this, Janice served as the vice president... Read More