Reading Time: 2 minutes Ontario’s federal/provincial AgriInsurance program has been temporarily expanded to include coronavirus-related labour shortages as a covered cause for crop loss. Producers already enrolled in an eligible production insurance plan and hit by crop losses due to labour disruptions during the 2020 growing season will be able to get further insurance coverage, the Ontario and federal […] Read more
Ontario to insure for crop loss due to lack of labour
AgriInsurance offering hailed as a first in Canada
Ontario extends fruit, forage insurance premium deadlines
Extension offers 'flexibility,' Agricorp says
Reading Time: < 1 minute Ontario fruit and forage growers who have production insurance premiums due this month will now have until June 30 to pay, the province said Monday. The extended premium payment deadline applies only to production insurance plans for fruit, strawberries and asparagus — and to the forage rainfall insurance plan, which uses rainfall as an indicator […] Read more
Summer Series: Advice for Young Farmers
Best Advice: If there was one piece of advice you wish somebody had given you (and that you had listened to) when you were just starting out on the farm, what would that be?
Reading Time: 5 minutes Once they’ve been in the biz for a few years, some farmers wish they hadn’t followed certain advice. Others wish they had. And others are happy with what they’ve accomplished based on advice they’d still follow if they had to do it all again. Here, a few farmers share what they’ve learned and offer their […] Read more
Teamwork makes the dream work for this group of Alberta farmers
These five Alberta farms have built a co-op that reduces their costs, increases their efficiency, and gets them into markets they otherwise couldn’t tap. The big question is, could it work for you too?
Reading Time: 10 minutes For these five adventurous Alberta farmers, a co-op is more than a way to structure operations. It’s more, too, than the camaraderie and the mutual support they get from working together with the same goal in mind, important though that is. For this group, it’s also about profitability, and about efficiency, and about enhancing their […] Read more
Plummeting french fry sales have potato growers re-evaluating
Restaurant closures slash demand, though 'chip sales have been great'
Reading Time: 2 minutes French fry sales are down across North America as tens of thousands of restaurants have closed during COVID-19, meaning the potato industry has to adapt quickly. Companies that turn potatoes into french fries, wedges and hash browns are slowing down, because there isn’t enough space to store all the frozen product. In Alberta and Manitoba, […] Read more
Canadian, U.S. farms face crop losses on foreign worker delays
Reading Time: 2 minutes Winnipeg/Chicago | Reuters — Mandatory coronavirus quarantines of seasonal foreign workers in Canada could hurt that country’s fruit and vegetable output this year, and travel problems related to the pandemic could also leave U.S. farmers with fewer workers than usual. Foreign labour is critical to farm production in both countries, where domestic workers shun the […] Read more
Michele Manelli — game changer in the world of wine
Here’s what happens when a young Italian abandons a flourishing financial career to “go farming”
Reading Time: 7 minutes I first met Michele Manelli two decades ago at Salcheto, the five-hectare vineyard he had recently bought. Nestled into a Tuscan hillside, at the end of a dirt road, it was billed as one of the finest parcels of land in the Montepulciano area, 250 kilometres northeast of Rome’s airport. The Salcheto story and his […] Read more
You can’t do that!
Going direct to consumer can seem oh so trendy and oh such a diversion from real farming, especially for grain and livestock farmers. Maybe we should all talk to Alberta’s Edgar family
Reading Time: 9 minutes Admittedly, asparagus can be a love-hate thing. Many of us can’t wait for the season to start. Others, well, not so much. But maybe that’s just because those others have never had their chance to try the juicy, sweet asparagus from Edgar Farms. Okay, so it sounds like a sales pitch. But read on. This […] Read more
Juice producer Lassonde to buy Sun-Rype
Reading Time: 3 minutes Canada’s domestic fruit juice sector is poised for consolidation as Quebec’s Lassonde Industries mounts a friendly $80 million bid for Sun-Rype Products. Lassonde recently announced it has entered an agreement with subsidiaries of Sun-Rype’s owner, the Jim Pattison Group, to buy the Kelowna, B.C.-based fruit snack and juice maker and its two U.S. affiliates for […] Read more
EU to ban Bayer’s Calypso insecticide
Reading Time: < 1 minute Brussels | Reuters — European Union governments on Tuesday widened the EU ban on neonicotinoid pesticides after deciding not to renew their approval for Bayer’s thiacloprid. Farmers will not be allowed to use the neonic insecticide, sold under the brands Calypso and Biscaya, after April 30, 2020, when its current approval expires. A majority of […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
