One of the things I love most about Twitter is impromptu sharing of stories, interests and events between near-strangers. From the mundane, to the hilarious, to the very interesting, Twitter connects those with similar interests and backgrounds, even if geography conspires against you. At the end of last week, some of my Tweeps (@MartinkaCCC @ShaneAgronomy... Read More
Category: Western Canada
Quebec-based Olymel has officially made a bid for Big Sky Farms, the Saskatchewan-based hog producer that recently entered receivership. Olymel has made a bid of $65 million to purchase the company. If successful, it's likely operations would not change significantly, as Olymel processed much of Big Sky's production. While this is the only current bid,... Read More
Dow AgroSciences LLC announced today Canadian approval of the Enlist trait for corn and soy. This will allow for the first-ever cultivation of the traits, which provide tolerance to 2,4-D herbicide, giving Canadian farmers options when dealing with hard-to-control and resistant weeds in both crops. The Enlist corn and Enlist soybean traits have undergone evaluation... Read More
Saskatchewan agriculture minister Lyle Stewart announced today the first 10 federal community pastures to be transferred to the province and to patron-controlled operation for the 2014 grazing season. Patrons (current users of the community pastures) will be given the opportunity to own or lease these pastures. "Patrons have had cattle grazing these pastures for years;... Read More
Can we capture the energy from manure that dairy cows produce and use it to fuel the trucks that pick up and deliver milk? The short answer is yes, but we're not going to see bio-methane pumps around town any time soon. RealAgriculture.com caught up with OMAFRA's Don Hilborn at Canada's Outdoor Farm Show to... Read More
Masterfeeds and Ridley's Canadian feed business, Feed-Rite, have announced plans to merge. The new commercial livestock, poultry feed and nutrition company, dubbed Masterfeeds LP, will become the second largest feed company in Canada. The new company will operate, among other things, 22 feed manufacturing plants and employ over 500 people in a business spanning across... Read More
If you had to, how would you rank the importance of food safety, the environment, animal welfare, the cost of food and health, as it relates to agricultural sustainability? Which is most important? Which matters less, relatively speaking? These are tough questions, certainly, but ones the agriculture industry needs to ask to better understand and... Read More
Each year my agricultural communications students prepare university-level speeches to compete with others from across the country in the Canadian Young Speakers for Agriculture contest, held annually in early November at the Royal in Toronto. Sometimes they win, and sometimes they don’t, but at the very least they get an all-too-rare platform to stand up... Read More
Priaxor DS from BASF is now registered to provide chickpea, lentil and field pea growers in Western Canada with a pretty good looking fungicide option. Priaxor is actually a combination of two fungicides from different chemical groups (7 & 11). Most notably, it contains the new active ingredient Xemium (fluxapyroxad) which is absorbed into the... Read More
Never say never will be the theme of this story. In a deal announced today, JBS (a Brazilian Packer) will take over the operation of the plant with the option to purchase the plant, the feedyard and the farm. A source informed us that XL Foods employees were told at 5 PM. According to the... Read More