Reading Time: 2 minutes MarketsFarm — The association representing the Prairies’ main grain handling companies says recent delays in loading vessels have less to do with the availability of grain and more to do with the railways hauling it to port. The Western Grain Elevator Association (WGEA), which represents major handlers such as Viterra, Richardson, Cargill and others, raised […] Read more
Railways to blame for terminal shortages, WGEA says
Grain handlers take issue with MarketsFarm report
Pulse packers’ security covers cash owed to farmers
Sales of Globeways plants in Manitoba, Saskatchewan now approved
Reading Time: 2 minutes More than 50 farmers who were owed money for deliveries to Prairie pulse and special crop processors Canpulse Foods and Global Grain Canada are expected to get what they’re owed, as both companies’ assets move to new ownership. Canpulse, Global Grain Canada and their parent company Globeways Canada went into receivership last Nov. 19, following […] Read more
StatsCan confirms canola stocks tightening
Wheat stocks also down from previous year-end
Reading Time: 2 minutes MarketsFarm — Solid demand from exporters and domestic crushers continues to eat rapidly through Canada’s canola stocks, which as of Dec. 31 were down nearly 24 per cent from the same date a year earlier, according to new data released Friday from Statistics Canada. The government agency pegged total canola stocks in the country as […] Read more
Canadian flax prices, exports going up
Reading Time: 2 minutes MarketsFarm — High demand and an accompanying increase in overseas exports have resulted in reduced domestic supply for Canadian flaxseed, helping drive prices for the crop to highs unseen in years. Marlene Boersch, owner of Mercantile Consulting Venture in Winnipeg, said the amount of flax from Canada going to the U.S. and European Union is […] Read more
Railways overshoot grain revenue limits for 2019-20
Grain revenues run $5.3 million over caps, CTA rules
Reading Time: 2 minutes Canada’s big two railways have about two more weeks to hand over about $5.6 million in Prairie grain revenue overages and related penalties for the 2019-20 crop year. The Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) on Dec. 22 ruled Canadian National Railway (CN) and Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) each overshot their maximum revenue entitlements (MREs) for the […] Read more
From flax in the field to shirt sleeves
Meet a Nuffield Canada farmer scholar with a vision for a value chain for Canadian-grown linen
Reading Time: 10 minutes [UPDATED: Jan. 11, 2021] Josh Oulton and his partner Patricia Bishop have grown flax on their Nova Scotia farm for nearly a decade, but not with an eye to the market that most Canadian flax growers are after. Instead, Oulton and Bishop grow varieties of flax that produce the plant-based fibre used to make linen, […] Read more
The life of the Red River
It took vision to turn the Red River Valley into some of Canada’s most productive farmland. And it still takes vision to farm it today
Reading Time: 10 minutes Two centuries ago, when the Scottish settlers first began to arrive, the Garden of Eden was nowhere in sight. This place was marsh, it seemed all but useless, and it took farmers to find the value in Manitoba’s famously fertile Red River Valley and to make it habitable. The valley was 60 per cent wetland […] Read more
Four-way Seeds Canada merger approved
Four organizations to amalgamate in February without CSGA on board
Reading Time: 3 minutes A merger of four Canadian seed industry organizations has been cleared to proceed without its fifth partner. Members of the Canadian Plant Technology Agency (CPTA), Commercial Seed Analysts Association of Canada (CSAAC), Canadian Seed Institute (CSI) and Canadian Seed Trade Association (CSTA) have voted in favour of amalgamation, the groups announced Wednesday. An inaugural board […] Read more
Is a united seed sector possible in Canada?
Finding modernization, value creation and synergy in a streamlined seeds agency
Reading Time: 7 minutes In spite of the size of agriculture in Canada, its home-grown seed industry is relatively small. Wheat and canola represent our two largest commodities by area, yet the domestic share of research and plant breeding activity is underwhelming. In part, that’s linked to the fact that the seed sector is comprised of a variety of […] Read more
Beware of Kazakhs wanting to buy seed, agency says
Seed growers and farmers alike are being warned such sales breach breeders' rights rules
Reading Time: 3 minutes Western Canadian seed growers, seed retailers and commercial farmers are being urged not to sell seed to Kazakhs or their agents because it breaches plant breeders’ rights rules. “The basic fact is no Canadian breeder has given permission for their genetics to go to Kazakhstan,” Lorne Hadley, executive director of the Canadian Plant Technology Agency, […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
