Reading Time: < 1 minute The St. Lawrence Seaway has announced late-December closures for its Montreal-Lake Ontario section and for the Welland Canal, likely assuring another record-long season for the shipping passage. The St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corp. posted 11:59 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 29 as the planned closing date for the seaway’s Montreal-Lake Ontario section, which opened this year […] Read more
St. Lawrence plans for record-long year
Village Farms cuts back to cut losses
Reading Time: 2 minutes Lack of sunshine and higher costs led Vancouver hothouse tomato producer Village Farms to a US$3.4 million net loss in its third quarter ending Sept. 30. The company is billed as the biggest producer, marketer and distributor of greenhouse tomatoes, bell peppers and cucumbers in North America, with major greenhouses at Delta and Abbotsford, B.C. […] Read more
Ag Growth buys U.S. equipment maker
Reading Time: < 1 minute Winnipeg grain handling equipment firm Ag Growth has signed a deal to buy another handling gear and storage manufacturer, Union Iron, for US$20.2 million. Union Iron, based at Decatur, Ill. (southwest of Chicago) makes equipment for commercial and larger farm operations, including bucket elevators, drag conveyors, screw conveyors, truck probes, towers and trusses, distributors, facility […] Read more
PotashCorp to expand SE Sask. potash mine
Reading Time: 2 minutes Saskatoon-based PotashCorp, already the world’s biggest potash producer by capacity, plans to boost that capacity by two million tonnes per year with a US$1.8 billion mine and mill expansion at Rocanville in southeastern Saskatchewan. The company said in a release Wednesday that this project will raise PotashCorp’s total annual potash capacity to 15.7 million tonnes […] Read more
Viterra enters grain bin business
Reading Time: < 1 minute Canada’s biggest grain handler has added corrugated grain bins to its retail offerings. Viterra, which formed earlier this year from the merger of Saskatchewan Wheat Pool and Agricore United, announced Tuesday it will launch a new line of bins under the brand name Westor. The bins are engineered by Westeel and will be sold exclusively […] Read more
Right to shoo wildlife proposed for Yukon farmers
Reading Time: 2 minutes Still legally unable to discourage wildlife from wandering onto their land, eating crops or wrecking fences, Yukon farmers may soon have the right to chase those unwanted visitors away. This proposal is one of 15 now being considered to the territory’s Wildlife Act for the coming year. The Yukon government is now calling for public […] Read more
Ag Growth expands U.S. factory floor
Reading Time: 2 minutes Winnipeg grain handling equipment maker Ag Growth will buy a plant in eastern Indiana to boost its manufacturing space in its core U.S. market and ease the pressure to try and find workers in Western Canada. The income trust announced Tuesday it had exercised a US$850,000 option to buy the 160,000-square foot plant at Union […] Read more
Children’s farm death rate not dropping: CASA
Reading Time: 2 minutes The death rate for Canadian children injured while working or playing on farms hasn’t risen over time but hasn’t dropped either, according to the latest data mined by the Canadian Agricultural Safety Association (CASA). Data collected by CASA for the latest Canadian agricultural injury surveillance program (CAISP) report shows 274 youths from ages one to […] Read more
CPR scrap ties to generate power for B.C. grid
Reading Time: < 1 minute Canadian Pacific Railway has signed a deal with a First Nations power cogeneration company to dispose of its scrap railroad ties. CPR announced an agreement Friday with Aboriginal Cogeneration Corp., which plans to have its first gasification plant operating by spring 2008 at Ashcroft, B.C., west of Kamloops. Rather than simply burning, the planned plant […] Read more
N.L. cranberry industry gets $2M public boost
Reading Time: < 1 minute Newfoundland and Labrador will get over $2 million in public investment toward development of the province’s cranberry industry. The federal and provincial governments on Friday announced $1.3 million from the federal Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA) innovative communities fund, $530,400 in provincial natural resources department funding (including $48,000 from the federal/provincial Agricultural Policy Framework) and […] Read more