Agriculture Machinery & Farming Equipment

Supreme Court tosses CP challenge on interswitching

By Country Guide Staff January 18, 2016

Reading Time: 2 minutes Canadian Pacific Railway’s (CP) bid to halt new federal rules which allow more Prairie elevators to move loaded grain cars on more than one railway has stopped at Canada’s highest court. The Supreme Court of Canada on Friday dismissed CP’s appeal of an October ruling at the Federal Court of Appeal — a ruling which […] Read more

(l to r) Tom Carroll, inventor of the self-propelled combine, A.A. Thornbrough, president of MF and Mitchell Sharpe minister of trade and commerce unveil a plaque commemorating 20 years of free trade in farm equipment at the grand opening of Massey Ferguson’s new combine plant in Brantford, Ont., in 1964.

Guide Business, Machinery, Machinery Guide

How “free” is the free trade in agricultural equipment?

Canadian farm equipment manufacturing got a boost from free trade in 1944. What can we expect from today’s trade agreements?

By Scott Garvey January 13, 2016

Reading Time: 6 minutes In the last few years, we’ve heard a lot of passionate political speeches about so-called free trade agreements. It’s a topic that is really more than a century old in this country, going back as far as 1911 when the failed push for “Reciprocity” between Canada and the U.S. made headlines as a hot-button issue. […] Read more

Livestock, Machinery, Weather

Study finds Canadian beef’s GHG footprint shrunk over 30 years

By Country Guide Staff January 11, 2016

Reading Time: 3 minutes Efficiencies in cattle production and feeding have allowed Canada’s beef industry to produce the same weight in beef as 30 years ago with smaller breeding herds, less land — and smaller greenhouse gas (GHG) output, a new study finds. The study, led by research scientist Tim McAllister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Lethbridge, with […] Read more

Crops, Fruit/Vegetables, Machinery, Pasture

Salford buys tillage equipment maker AerWay

By Country Guide Staff January 8, 2016

Reading Time: 2 minutes Southwestern Ontario vertical tillage and pasture equipment maker AerWay has become part of another well-known Ontario ag equipment manufacturer. Salford Group announced in December it has bought the AerWay advanced aeration products line from the Canadian trailer systems arm of German truck, bus and trailer axle and suspension manufacturer SAF-Holland. AerWay, which operates a manufacturing […] Read more

CPG, whose COO and owner Kelly Beaulieu is shown here in a file photo, will get over half a million dollars in public funds for the company’s expansion.

Crops, Fruit/Vegetables, Machinery

Puree processor gets GF2 funds for expansion

By Country Guide Staff January 8, 2016

Reading Time: 2 minutes A Portage la Prairie food processor that converts culled vegetables into nutritional purees has received $582,000 from the federal-provincial Growing Value program to increase its capacity. Canadian Prairie Garden Puree Products has acquired new equipment and modified its existing operation in order to cook more types of fruits, vegetables and pulse crops like chickpeas, navy […] Read more

Crops, Machinery, Markets

Baltic Dry Index continues downward slide

By Phil Franz-Warkentin January 7, 2016

Reading Time: 2 minutes CNS Canada — A downtrend in ocean freight rates shows no sign of letting up, as the Baltic Dry Index again hit fresh historic lows. The Baltic Dry Index (BDI) was quoted at 445 points on Thursday, marking a new low since records began in 1985. The index was trading above 1,200 as recently as […] Read more

Today, manufacturers welcome customers and visitors to their assembly plants to see first hand how companies focus on build quality.

Guide Business, Machinery

The quality revolution in agricultural machinery

Business has changed. You can’t build a tractor the way they used to. Farmers won’t let you

By Scott Garvey December 31, 2015

Reading Time: 6 minutes At first, we all thought he must have been exaggerating. It was 2013 and we were at the Hesston, Kansas combine assembly plant where Hans-Bernd Veltmaat, AGCO’s senior vice-president was discussing the plant’s US$40-million expansion, which included a new state-of-the-art paint system. “This paint centre is a major building block for AGCO,” Veltmaat said. “With […] Read more

Machinery, Machinery Guide

More compact mid-range tractors

Machinery Guide: CNH introduces two high-horsepower, small-chassis models

By Scott Garvey December 31, 2015

Reading Time: 4 minutes In my last article, Machinery Guide took a look at AGCO’s newest Fendt tractor, the compact 500 Series. It fits into a relatively new tractor market segment that offers higher horsepower in a compact package. This year CNH also threw its hat into that big-power, small-chassis ring with the introduction of two new models in both […] Read more

Crops, Machinery

Equipment maker Buhler books year-end loss

By Country Guide Staff December 30, 2015

Reading Time: < 1 minute Weak commodity prices and political unease in Eastern Europe have led to a year-end loss for Canadian farm equipment and Versatile tractor maker Buhler Industries. Winnipeg-based Buhler on Tuesday reported a net loss of $5.3 million on revenues of $245.7 million for its year ending Sept. 30, down from a $12.5 million profit on $325.5 […] Read more

Crops, Machinery

Precision ag firm AgJunction plans post-merger job cuts

By Country Guide Staff December 30, 2015

Reading Time: < 1 minute Precision agriculture equipment and software firm AgJunction is set to cut down its workforce in the wake of its merger with a U.S. competitor. AgJunction, which in 2013 relocated its head office from Calgary to Kansas and shut its Calgary manufacturing plant, announced Wednesday it will reduce its total workforce by about 20 per cent […] Read more

Daily Network News

Southern California honeybees show resistance to varroa mites

Pulse Weekly: SaskPulse optimistic despite input, crop price concerns

Canadian aquaculture should be classed as agriculture, industry groups say

Machinery