A Heinz ketchup packing line. (Kraft Heinz video screengrab)

Kraft Heinz backed for ketchup production in Montreal

Company to add ketchup line at Mont Royal site

Reading Time: 2 minutes A $23.3 million expansion of Kraft Heinz’s food manufacturing complex in Montreal will see the company resume making Heinz ketchup for Canada, in Canada. The U.S.-based food processing giant and the Quebec government on Nov. 17 announced the expansion plan for the company’s Mont Royal plant, which today makes products such as KD Mac + […] Read more

(Photo courtesy Canada Beef Inc.)

Feed weekly outlook: Barley bids firm as feeders seek coverage through spring

Reading Time: 2 minutes MarketsFarm — Feed barley bids held firm through November in Western Canada, with higher prices for deferred delivery as feedlots work to secure supplies in the face of solid export demand. Spot feed barley bids in the Lethbridge, Alta. area have held in the $270-$275 per tonne range through November, said Jim Beusekom of Market […] Read more


Figure 1. Dog strangling vine along a roadside in York Region where it is creeping into the fenceline and bordering corn field.

Pest Patrol: Dog strangling vine control with herbicides

#PestPatrol with Mike Cowbrough, OMAFRA

Reading Time: 2 minutes An invasive perennial weed from the milkweed family, dog strangling vine is extremely difficult to control once it gets established (Figure 1 at top). Progress has been made on biological control of this weed in Ontario through the release of Hypena opulenta, a leaf-feeding caterpillar. However, integrated strategies that include both biological and chemical methods […] Read more

ICE January 2021 canola (candlesticks) with 20-day moving average (yellow line) and CBOT January 2021 soyoil (blue line). (Barchart)

ICE weekly outlook: Canola stronger at midweek

Reading Time: < 1 minute MarketsFarm — ICE Futures canola contracts were stronger on Wednesday, making up losses incurred earlier in the week. The nearby January contract closed Wednesday at $578.90 per tonne, gaining a few dollars after losing $7 in the prior day’s trade. Keith Ferley of RBC Dominion Securities in Winnipeg said canola’s losses were due to chart […] Read more


Researchers placed swede midge on 12 different crop and weed brassica species in a “bug dorm” to test where they’d most prefer to lay eggs. Results ranged from nearly 500 eggs for canola and mustard to zero for flixweed.

Getting the jump on swede midge

The canola pest hasn’t become established in Western Canada, but researchers want to be prepared if it does

Reading Time: 3 minutes Prairie canola growers had a bit of a fright in 2007 and 2008. Swede midge, a pest causing serious damage and yield loss to canola crops in Ontario, had been found in some areas of Manitoba and Saskatchewan and farmers were rightly alarmed. It turns out that it was just a wake-up call, but one […] Read more

CBOT March 2021 corn with 20-, 50- and 100-day moving averages. (Barchart)

CBOT weekly outlook: Markets could go higher after U.S. Thanksgiving

Ethanol data show demand for corn

Reading Time: 2 minutes MarketsFarm — Just ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States, the Chicago Board of Trade was pulling back a little, generating double-digit losses in most wheat contracts, while corn and soybeans were down by smaller amounts. However, from Steve Georgy, president of Allendale Inc. at Fort McHenry, Ill., sits, the trend after Thanksgiving […] Read more


CBOT March 2021 wheat with 20-, 50- and 100-day moving averages. (Barchart)

U.S. grains: CBOT wheat down three per cent

Soy, corn also sag on pre-holiday slide

Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — Chicago wheat futures fell more than three per cent on Wednesday and corn and soybean futures also slipped as traders booked profits after recent highs in all three markets, and ahead of Thursday’s U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, analysts said. Chicago Board of Trade March wheat futures settled down 21 cents at $5.96-1/2 […] Read more

File photo of a rye field in Kazakhstan. (Stsmhn/iStock/Getty Images)

Beware of Kazakhs wanting to buy seed, agency says

Seed growers and farmers alike are being warned such sales breach breeders' rights rules

Reading Time: 3 minutes Western Canadian seed growers, seed retailers and commercial farmers are being urged not to sell seed to Kazakhs or their agents because it breaches plant breeders’ rights rules. “The basic fact is no Canadian breeder has given permission for their genetics to go to Kazakhstan,” Lorne Hadley, executive director of the Canadian Plant Technology Agency, […] Read more


File photo of lentils being moved into bins in Saskatchewan. (Bobloblaw/iStock/Getty Images)

Pulse weekly outlook: Lentil prices hit December lull

Reading Time: < 1 minute MarketsFarm — After a year that has seen lentil prices climb by between seven and 13 cents/lb., they have stalled and pulled back a little bit, according to Allan Johnston of Johnston Grains at Welwyn, Sask. “The market is not very friendly,” Johnston said, noting dry pea prices have receded as well. “Lentil prices are […] Read more

Canola seed, oil and meal. (Photo courtesy Canola Council of Canada)

October crush numbers up, canola record set

Reading Time: < 1 minute MarketsFarm — Canadian oilseed processors crushed a record amount of canola during October 2020, according to the latest data from Statistics Canada. Increases were reported throughout the canola and soybean crushes when comparing this October with October 2019. October 2020 saw 931,060 tonnes of canola crushed, which bested the previous record of 899,331 tonnes set […] Read more