W. Canada spring wheat, durum yields look second-biggest ever: crop tour

Reading Time: 2 minutes Reuters —  Western Canada spring wheat and durum yields this year look to fall from last year’s high levels, but the still bountiful production should offset some losses from flooded farms, leaders of a crop tour said on Thursday. The inaugural Cereals North America Canadian crop tour pegged spring wheat yield potential in the region […] Read more



Rains leave swampy, fallow fields in Manitoba, Saskatchewan -scouts

Reading Time: 2 minutes Spring wheat and canola fields in western Manitoba and southeastern Saskatchewan are dotted by cattails and swamps, while others are unplanted or abandoned, evidence of heavy spring rains that reduced Canada’s potential crop output, scouts on a crop tour said on Tuesday. Other spring wheat and canola fields are growing but are less mature than […] Read more

Southern Manitoba canola growth more varied than usual – scouts

Reading Time: 2 minutes Canola crops in southern Manitoba are growing at a wider range of stages than usual, with many behind their normal development stage, scouts touring the fertile western Prairies found on Monday. Some canola was just beginning to flower, while other crops were in full bloom, canola’s critical development period. Other fields of canola in south-central […] Read more


Floods drown Prairie crops, ruin old supplies

Reading Time: 2 minutes Winnipeg | Reuters –– Floods that washed across Saskatchewan and Manitoba last weekend hit farmers twice, drowning newly seeded fields of wheat and canola, while also ruining stockpiles of last year’s crops. Heavy rain of up to 260 millimetres (10.2 inches) swamped the eastern side of Western Canada’s crop belt last weekend, submerging crops, washing […] Read more

(Photo courtesy Canada Beef Inc.)

Packers slow production citing worker shortage

Reading Time: 2 minutes Winnipeg | Reuters — Canadian meat packers are short hundreds of workers, forcing plants to run at well below full capacity, the Canadian Meat Council said Monday. Plants are operating at 77 per cent of capacity on average, based on a survey by the industry group, resulting in more Canadian cattle and hogs are being […] Read more


Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz, shown here speaking in Saskatoon in March, said he doesn’t entertain the idea of expanding U.S. access to Canada’s dairy market. (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada photo)

‘Bully’ U.S. wrong to criticize Canada on trade, Ritz says

Reading Time: 2 minutes Winnipeg | Reuters — Canada’s federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz lashed out at the U.S. for acting like a “schoolyard bully” on trade issues, and said he sees more promise in negotiating a bilateral deal with Japan than the more ambitious Trans-Pacific Partnership. Ritz, in an interview with Reuters on Wednesday, also said it would […] Read more

(NeilsonDairy.com)

Saputo eyes mergers, acquisitions in U.S., Canada, Australia

Reading Time: 2 minutes Reuters — Canada’s largest dairy producer, Saputo, still digesting a major purchase in Australia, is examining other possible acquisitions there and in the U.S., Canada and Latin America, CEO Lino Saputo Jr. said Thursday. In the U.S., potential acquisitions could cost less than $100 million to as much as $4 billion, Saputo said in a […] Read more


Russia’s Uralkali plans potash output near maximum capacity

Reading Time: 2 minutes New York | Reuters — The world’s biggest potash producer, Russia’s Uralkali, plans to produce close to its maximum capacity this year but does not rule out idling production to support the crop nutrient’s price, CEO Dmitry Osipov said Thursday. Uralkali is aiming to produce 12 million tonnes of its 13 million-tonne potash capacity this […] Read more

Planting corn in south-central Manitoba in May 2014. (Co-operator photo by Allan Dawson)

Cold, soggy spring delaying seeding on Prairies

Reading Time: 2 minutes Winnipeg | Reuters — Crop planting in Western Canada has fallen well behind the usual pace as cool, wet weather idles farmers. Just six per cent of the overall crop was planted as of Monday, down from last year’s 10 per cent and well off the norm of around one-quarter seeded by this time of […] Read more