Reading Time: 2 minutes Sugar beet growers in Alberta will have a growing season in 2015 after all, having reached a last-minute deal with Canada’s lone sugar beet processor. Montreal-based Rogers Sugar on Wednesday announced its Lantic subsidiary has reached a new four-year agreement with the Alberta Sugar Beet Growers Association to supply the company’s beet sugar plant at […] Read more
Alta. beet growers, Rogers Sugar reach four-year deal
Former Man. agriculture minister won’t run again
Reading Time: 2 minutes Manitoba Premier Greg Selinger’s first agriculture minister plans to exit the provincial political arena. Stan Struthers, the MLA since 1995 for what’s now the Dauphin riding, and agriculture minister from 2009 to 2011, announced Wednesday he won’t seek re-election when the next provincial vote is held in April 2016. Struthers, a high school principal at […] Read more
Co-op Atlantic members approve exit from food, gas
Reading Time: 2 minutes Delegates to Atlantic Canada’s biggest co-operative have approved a proposal to divest its way out of the grocery and fuel business. Co-op Atlantic’s board of directors last month rolled out a proposal in which the organization would make a deal with Nova Scotia-based grocery giant Sobeys for the co-op’s food- and fuel-related wholesale and retail […] Read more
Wheats in CWRS, CPSR classes up for review
Reading Time: 2 minutes Owners of Canada Western Red Spring (CWRS) and Canada Prairie Spring Red (CPSR) wheat varieties have until month’s end to decide whether to put their products through more trials, or let their varieties be reclassified. The Canadian Grain Commission on Friday announced a review of the CWRS and CPSR wheat classes will start immediately, citing […] Read more
Clubroots beating all resistant canolas across Alta.
Reading Time: 2 minutes A study of 27 canola fields across Alberta has found 16 infected with clubroot pathotypes able to cause “high levels” of the disease — in canola plants with clubroot-resistant genetics. What’s more, the clubroot pathogen isolated from “many” of the infected fields in the study was virulent on all clubroot-resistant canola cultivars, the Canola Council of Canada […] Read more
Canada, Philippines to talk about free trade talks
Reading Time: 2 minutes Canada and the Philippines have launched “exploratory discussions” toward a possible free trade agreement, from which Canadian livestock and grain producers could expect to gain. Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Philippines’ President Benigno Aquino announced the discussions Friday in Ottawa during Aquino’s state visit, which ends Saturday. A Canada-Philippines free trade agreement “would strengthen […] Read more
Manitoba New Holland dealers soon all in one chain
Reading Time: < 1 minute Farmer fans of the New Holland brand in Manitoba will soon be dealing with just one company in the province for new and used equipment, service and parts. Brandon-based Mazergroup on Thursday announced it’s signed a letter of intent to buy the assets and operations of Southeastern Farm Equipment — the lone New Holland dealer […] Read more
Salford to buy applicator maker Valmar
Reading Time: 2 minutes Prairie manufacturing firm Valmar Airflo, known for its farm-, commercial- and research-grade granular applicator systems, is under new ownership. Valmar, set up in 1977 at Elie, Man. by farm mechanic, crop duster and inventor Charlie Balmer, has been sold to Ontario seeding and tillage equipment firm Salford Group for an undisclosed sum. Valmar will continue […] Read more
NDP wave pulls down Alta. Tories, ag minister
Reading Time: 2 minutes Alberta’s incumbent agriculture and rural development minister is among the casualties of the provincial New Democrats’ unprecedented majority in Tuesday’s election. Verlyn Olson, the MLA for Wetaskiwin-Camrose since 2008, the province’s ag and rural development minister since 2012, and its acting justice minister for about a week and a half, was downed by NDP candidate […] Read more
P.E.I. Liberals in need of ag minister after win
Reading Time: 2 minutes Wade MacLauchlan’s Liberals scored another majority in the Prince Edward Island legislature in Monday’s election, but will need to find a new agriculture minister. George Webster — who’d held the post from 2009 until Monday, stepping down temporarily in 2009 to recover from a mild heart attack — opted not to run again in his riding […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
