Warm spell raises hopes as Canadian farmers race to finish harvest

Winnipeg/Reuters – Unusually warm temperatures in Western Canada are raising farmers' hopes of a strong finish to a growing season of highs and lows, easing investors' worries about the late harvest. Summer-like weather in Saskatchewan and Alberta, the two biggest wheat and canola-growing provinces in Canada — a top global exporter of both crops —[...]

Harvest woes rally canola, turn some farmers into winners

Winnipeg | Reuters -- As some Western Canada farmers watched rain and snow turn their ripening canola fields into bogs, Rob Stone could count his blessings. Harvest weather was kinder to his farm at Davidson, Sask., about 100 km southeast of Saskatoon, and Stone finished harvesting canola by mid-September. Then, when worries about four million[...]


Prairie farmers eye early start to seeding

Winnipeg | Reuters -- Western Canadian farmers, some of whom could not plant crops last year due to soggy soil, may be able to get a head-start on sowing their fields this spring. Canada is the world's biggest canola exporter and the second largest wheat exporter, but its flat western provinces -- Manitoba, Saskatchewan and[...]

California plan for water tunnels violates environmental rules: EPA

Reuters -- A California plan to bore two massive water tunnels under the fragile Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta hit a barrier this week when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said the plan could violate the federal Clean Water Act and further degrade the delta's ecosystem. The decision is the latest in a series of setbacks for[...]


Lawmakers in drought-hit California agree on water plan

Sacramento | Reuters -- California Governor Jerry Brown approved on Wednesday a US$7.6 billion plan to improve water supplies in the drought-stricken state that will be put before voters in November, ending a year of political wrangling over the measure. California is in the throes of a devastating multi-year drought that is expected to cost[...]