Reading Time: < 1 minute The former Winnipeg Commodity Exchange will remove its December 2008 and later feed wheat contracts from trading, starting Wednesday evening. ICE Futures Canada, as the WCE has been known since January , announced its decision Tuesday in a notice to exchange participants. The removal of December 2008 and subsequent contracts will take effect on ICE’s […] Read more
ICE feed wheat contracts end Wed. night
N.S. “pumpkin king” Howard Dill, 73
Reading Time: < 1 minute Howard Dill, an Annapolis Valley pumpkin breeder known worldwide for his giant pumpkins, died Tuesday of cancer at age 73, according to reports from Nova Scotia media. Dill, a self-taught plant breeder, earned business from competitive giant pumpkin growers and ordinary gardeners from as far away as Thailand and Turkey, CBC said Wednesday. According to […] Read more
Sask. stock growers name new GM
Reading Time: < 1 minute An articling agrologist with a background in water stewardship is the Saskatchewan Stock Growers Association’s new general manager. Chad MacPherson, the former Moose Jaw River Watershed Stewards stewardship co-ordinator, was the first source water protection plan co-ordinator in the province, the SSGA said in a release Wednesday. MacPherson replaces consultant Adele Buettner of AgriBiz Communications, […] Read more
Alta. pulse growers name new director
Reading Time: < 1 minute The Alberta Pulse Growers Commission has named a pulse crop researcher as its new executive director. Sheri Strydhorst, who farms with her husband at Neerlandia, 150 km northwest of Edmonton, recently earned her Ph.D. from the University of Alberta and has worked on nitrogen fixation and increasing the use of pulses in Alberta’s cropping systems. […] Read more
Ex-Sask. ag deputy heads north
Reading Time: < 1 minute A former top agriculture bureaucrat in the Saskatchewan government will take up a new deputy minister’s post this summer in the Yukon. Harvey Brooks, who was Saskatchewan’s deputy minister of agriculture until November 2007, will become the Yukon government’s deputy minister of economic development, effective July 17. Brooks “has experience in rural revitalization and cross-departmental […] Read more
Ritz rips draft WTO text over SM goods
Reading Time: < 1 minute While a new draft modalities text for agriculture negotiations at the World Trade Organization has much for Canadian crop and livestock exporters to like, Canada has “serious concerns” over what’s not there. Specifically, federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said in a release Tuesday that he’s “particularly disappointed that there has been so little progress in […] Read more
Winds a setback in Man., Sask.
Reading Time: 2 minutes Strong wind last week helped deplete soil moisture in Saskatchewan and took the soil with it in some fields in Manitoba. Saskatchewan’s ag ministry on Tuesday reported that province’s seeding at 56 per cent complete, up from the 2003-07 average of 50 per cent, with southern regions 68 to 70 per cent complete and the […] Read more
Sask. to back shortline rail improvements
Reading Time: < 1 minute The Saskatchewan government will support shortline rail companies’ infrastructure projects with a new program announced Tuesday. The provincial highways and infrastructure department will put up $500,000 this fiscal year to cost-share infrastructure projects 50/50 with eligible shortline companies. Any of Saskatchewan’s eight shortline railways is eligible to apply for funding if it meets criteria, such […] Read more
Diageo to buy Constellation’s Que. distillery
Reading Time: 2 minutes The makers of Black Velvet whisky are selling their Quebec distillery and consolidating their Canadian production in Alberta. New York-based Constellation Spirits announced Tuesday that it will sell its Schenley Distillery and Bottling operation at Valleyfield, southwest of Montreal, to Diageo, another major player in the spirits, beer and wine business worldwide. Terms of the […] Read more
P.E.I. fund to support ag, rural jobs
Reading Time: < 1 minute The Prince Edward Island government has put up $1.25 million over three years to help rural businesses and agencies hire additional staff, including businesses in ag-related processing. The rural jobs initiative, announced Tuesday, is aimed at the creation of jobs in support of innovation, technological adaptation and sustainable diversification, Rural Development Minister Allan Campbell said […] Read more