Reading Time: 3 minutes After a year of negotiations to develop an insurance-based producer payment protection plan, the Canadian Grain Commission has called it quits, surprising and disappointing some farm groups. The CGC has been attempting to replace the current bonding system to protect farmers against payment defaults for grain delivered to merchandisers. It had been negotiating with with […] Read more
Grain commission bonding replacement plan stalls
Grain drain — are carryover projections off the mark?
Reading Time: 4 minutes Canada will carryover more grain than usual when the crop year ends July 31, but analysts say it may be less than some people think. That mountain of Western grain created from a record harvest last fall, combined with poor rail service until spring, is being whittled away. In its July Outlook for Principle Crops […] Read more
Grain handling firms rip CP chief’s claims
Reading Time: 3 minutes The organization representing the Prairies’ mainline grain handlers isn’t buying claims from Canadian Pacific (CP) Railway’s CEO about why the railway’s grain shipments are lagging. Hunter Harrison, in a full-page ad last week in Canada’s two national newspapers, said the harshest winter in 60 years, a record Western crop and grain companies not running 24/7 […] Read more
UPOV ’91 en route through feds’ ‘Agricultural Growth Act’
Reading Time: 3 minutes Canada has started the process of implementing UPOV ’91 — a stronger form of plant breeders’ rights that Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz says will encourage more private sector plant breeding and is also expected to see farmers pay breeders more in royalties. The changes are part of Bill C-18, the Agricultural Growth Act, introduced Monday […] Read more
Ritz announces proposed changes to Plant Breeders Rights Act
Reading Time: < 1 minute Canada intends to sign onto an international convention to give increased variety protection to plant breeders, federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz told the Canadian Seed Trade Association’s semi-annual meeting in Winnipeg on Wednesday. Ritz said the government plans to sign on to the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants convention (UPOV […] Read more
Manitoba farmers seek extension on fertilizer deadline
Reading Time: 2 minutes Manitoba’s Keystone Agricultural Producers (KAP) farm group is still seeking a blanket extension of the province’s Nov. 10 deadline for applying fertilizer and manure to fields — but the government is betting the blast of winter in the current forecast will render the request moot. KAP president Doug Chorney said he saw lots of farmers […] Read more
Record crop meets plugged system
Reading Time: 3 minutes Record crop? Meet plugged elevator. Shippers say it’s a match made in purgatory for farmers and exporters trying to get this year’s harvest to market — and the railways are to blame. “We’re not getting enough rail capacity to move the crop right now,” Wade Sobkowich, executive director of the Western Grain Elevator Association said […] Read more
Grain industry reacts to CGC’s insurance-based security scheme
Reading Time: 3 minutes Response to the Canadian Grain Commission’s (CGC) proposal to replace its current producer security program with an insurance scheme is mostly positive. But support is contingent on the new program being cheaper than the current one — something the CGC says will be the case, even though no figures have been released yet. Keystone Agricultural […] Read more
Dawson: Crop sales to yield equity stakes in privatized CWB
Reading Time: 3 minutes Western Canadian farmers can expect to get $5 of equity in a privatized CWB, for every tonne sold to CWB this crop year. The offer was recently posted on CWB’s website, Gord Flaten, CWB’s vice-president for grain procurement, said in an interview. Details were issued to grain companies Thursday and information is also being sent […] Read more
Consultations to begin on Sask. agricultural drainage
Reading Time: 2 minutes The Saskatchewan government is asking citizens for their views on agricultural drainage through an online forum running from Sept. 1 through to March 31, 2014. “We’re looking for input and opinions because drainage has been an issue for a while and the 25-year plan (for water management) identified it as an area of concern to […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
