Many of the Prairie livestock producers forced by drought to make "difficult herd management decisions" in the 2022 income tax year are now eligible to defer the taxable income from those decisions. Federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau on Tuesday released the initial list of designated regions in Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan where livestock tax deferral[...]


Saskatchewan, B.C. areas up for livestock tax deferrals
Livestock producers in several more parched municipalities in Saskatchewan and British Columbia will be able to defer income from sales of animals on their 2017 tax returns. The federal government on Tuesday announced its final list of designated regions for 2017, including 20 more municipalities in Saskatchewan and seven in British Columbia. The initial list,[...]
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[...]
Central Alberta receives weekend rainfall
Commodity News Service Canada — Many regions of central Alberta saw some beneficial rainfall going into the weekend, which provided some relief to dry fields and aided crops as they head into the filling stage. “What it’s basically going to do is help fill the crops. In some places they had up to two inches of rain[...]
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[...]
U.S. corn, soy jump one per cent on planting snarls
Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) corn and soybean futures jumped one per cent on Friday as persistent heavy rains delayed U.S. planting of both crops, threatening production prospects. "Nobody wants to be short due to the planting issue. There is concern now that not everything will get planted," said Roy Huckabay, analyst for Chicago-based trade[...]
BMO pledges drought relief for farm clients
BMO Financial Group said last week it will offer Canadian and U.S. farmer customers financial drought relief to help them get through one of the worst droughts to hit North America in more than 50 years. Toronto-based BMO said it is providing drought-hit farmers more access to capital, fee concessions, working lines of credit and,[...]