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Amy Kitchen stands at the door to a greenhouse at Sideroad Farm.
Features, Marketing

Direct farm marketers shift gears during pandemic lockdown phase

Direct-to-consumer farm marketers learn to manage businesses that have grown much quicker than they expected

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Reading Time: 6 minutes Glacier FarmMedia – Nestled in the colourfully chaotic flower garden encompassing Sideroad Farm, Amy Kitchen’s sun-browned face flits between appreciation and concern.  Sixteen months past the initial pandemic lockdown in March 2020, Kitchen is in the enviable position of having her Grey County organic on-farm business rocket past its five-year growth plan.  “There’s a lot […] Read more
Cattle graze near Dauphin, Man. in late July. (Manitoba Co-operator photo by Alexis Stockford)
Livestock, Weather

Feds lock in AgriRecovery funds before election call

Ottawa's pledged share now up to $500 million

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Reading Time: 2 minutes Just hours ahead of a federal election call, the federal government has committed $500 million to cover its share of federal/provincial AgriRecovery support plans for drought-hit farmers across Canada’s West. Shortly before Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s visit Sunday to Rideau Hall seeking the dissolution of Parliament for a federal election, Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau confirmed […] Read more
The USDA building in Washington, D.C. (Art Wager/iStock/Getty Images)
Livestock, Markets, Reuters

U.S. ag secretary backs proposed meatpacking investigator

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Reading Time: < 1 minute Reuters — U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Tuesday threw his support behind a proposal to establish a special investigator to address concerns about anti-competitive practices in the meat and poultry industries. Republican U.S. Senators Mike Rounds of South Dakota and Charles Grassley of Iowa and Democratic Senator Jon Tester of Montana have proposed legislation […] Read more
Average sea surface temperature anomalies over the equatorial Pacific Ocean for the week centred on May 5, 2021 compared to 1981-2010 base period. (CPC.ncep.noaa.gov)
General, Reuters, Weather

La Nina done, U.S. CPC says

Neutral weather likely through summer

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Reading Time: < 1 minute Reuters — A U.S. government weather forecaster said on Thursday La Nina has ended and El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) neutral conditions are likely to continue through the Northern Hemisphere summer. “ENSO neutral” refers to periods in which neither El Nino nor La Nina is present, often coinciding with the transition between the two weather patterns, […] Read more
File photo of cattle grazing on Prince Edward Island. (ArodPEI/iStock/Getty Images)
Forages, Livestock, Pasture

Eastern drought zones set for livestock tax deferrals

Regions designated in P.E.I., N.S., N.B., Quebec

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Reading Time: 3 minutes In a decision that may have come late for some, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and parts of southeastern Quebec and northwestern Nova Scotia have been declared drought zones for eligible livestock producers’ 2020 tax purposes. The federal government on Monday released its list and map of prescribed drought regions where tax deferral on sales […] Read more
(IMNATURE/iStock/Getty Images)
General, Markets

Ontario’s RMP rolling out ‘later than usual’

Details pending, Agricorp says

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Reading Time: < 1 minute Ontario farmers’ coverage under the provincial Risk Management Program (RMP) won’t be affected by ‘a bit later’ rollout this spring, the program’s handlers say. Agricorp, the province’s farm program delivery agency, reiterated in a statement Tuesday that the RMP “will be available in 2021 (and) program details will be shared with customers as soon as […] Read more
Percentage of average precipitation in Western Canada for the 90 days ending April 5, 2021. (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada map)
Crops, Forages, Weather

Manitoba forage, grassland growers burned by drought

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Reading Time: 2 minutes MarketsFarm — An ongoing lack of precipitation, which is showing no signs of letting up in the coming months according to weather forecasts, is already causing problems for Manitoba’s forage and grasslands. Growers in the province have had to deal with three straight years with lower-than-normal precipitation. In 2019, multiple rural municipalities in Manitoba’s Parkland […] Read more
(Dave Bedard photo)
Livestock, Reuters

U.S. pork processors face higher costs, slower speeds after court ruling

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Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — An industry group representing America’s biggest meatpackers on Thursday pushed the U.S. Department of Agriculture to appeal a federal court decision that canceled an agency rule that allows pork plants to slaughter pigs more quickly. The decision issued Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Minnesota could raise costs for meatpackers like […] Read more
Ian Murray and Sally Bowen of Topsy Farms on Amherst Island, Ont.
Features, Guide Business

Turning Topsy right side up

What happens when a hippie commune learns that some strategic business skills could help it thrive?

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Reading Time: 8 minutes When Topsy Farms started in 1971, the goal was simple. How could it need a complex business plan? Starting with five hippies, they were creating a commune on Amherst Island, just offshore in Lake Ontario west of Kingston. The goal was clear too — become a self-sustaining community, secluded from the outside world, a place […] Read more
One vista of Iceland.
Guide Business, Sheep/Goats

Happiness, Iceland-style

There’s real romance to the history of Icelandic horses and sheep, and maybe real opportunity for these Canadian farmers

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Reading Time: 7 minutes Over a thousand years ago, in the year 874, when the Vikings first landed on Iceland, they came with their sheep and horses, and the animals proved essential for the survival of those early Icelanders as they settled the rugged North Atlantic island. The horses served as transport and labour; the sheep provided meat, milk […] Read more

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