Agriculture Machinery & Farming Equipment

Transport Canada seeks CN safety plan after derailments

By Reuters March 25, 2015

Reading Time: < 1 minute Toronto | Reuters — Regulator Transport Canada has issued a notice to Canadian National Railway (CN) requesting a plan to ensure safety along its main line’s Ruel subdivision, where three trains derailed in fewer than 30 days in February and March, the railway said Wednesday. The notice, given on March 12 but not previously reported, was […] Read more

Crops, Machinery, Reuters, Weather

CN says harsh winter one reason for spike in 2014 accidents

By Reuters March 24, 2015

Reading Time: < 1 minute Ottawa | Reuters — An unusually harsh winter is one of the reasons Canadian National Railway (CN) suffered a sharp increase in the number of train accidents in 2014, a top official said Tuesday. Chief operating officer Jim Vena told a committee of federal legislators that deep cold can cause rails and wheels to crack. […] Read more

P.E.I. Transportation Minister Alan McIsaac and John Jamieson of the P.E.I. Federation of Agriculture on Thursday announced a new one-time registration option for farm trucks’ plates. (Government of P.E.I. photo by Brian Simpson)

Crops, Machinery

P.E.I. to offer one-time farm truck registration fee

By Country Guide Staff March 19, 2015

Reading Time: 2 minutes Prince Edward Island’s farmers, starting next month, will be able pay a one-time fee to register their farm trucks for as long as they own them. The province until now has charged a cut-rate annual registration fee of $10 on trucks weighing at least one ton (10,000 pounds gross vehicle weight or more), if the trucks […] Read more

Machinery, Machinery Guide

Shifting borders in the farm machinery business

Get ready to buy a whole lot more from your equipment dealer than just equipment

By Scott Garvey March 18, 2015

Reading Time: 5 minutes Have you ever seen an International Harvester refrigerator, or a Massey-Ferguson cream separator? They were farmyard fixtures at one time. Farmers bought them from their local farm machinery dealership while buying a wide variety of other essentials too. Over time, those equipment dealers evolved from that “everything-you-need-we’ve-got” business model to become machinery specialists, strictly purveyors […] Read more

WeatherFarm now offers farmers an expanded daily email as well as a new mobile app, whose forecast page is shown here.

Crops, Machinery, Weather

WeatherFarm boosts local-level data for farmers

By Country Guide Staff March 18, 2015

Reading Time: < 1 minute Prairie weather network WeatherFarm has moved to expand the data it can provide to farmers through its new daily email. The network, operated by ag meteorology firm Weather Innovations Consulting (WIN) in partnership with Glacier Farmmedia, owners of this website, gets its data mainly from over 1,100 weather stations set up at farms, grain elevators […] Read more

Crops, Machinery, Markets

CN shopcraft staff ratify labour deal

By Country Guide Staff March 17, 2015

Reading Time: 2 minutes Updated, March 18 — Unionized rail car and locomotive repair, maintenance and inspection staff at Canadian National Railway (CN) have approved the 11th-hour deal that kept them from being locked out last month. CN, in a release Tuesday, said members of its shopcraft group of about 2,100 employees, represented by Unifor Local 100R, have voted […] Read more

Crops, Machinery

Four Unifor locals ratify deals with CN

By Country Guide Staff March 16, 2015

Reading Time: 2 minutes Four of five groups of Canadian National Railway (CN) employees have voted to ratify the new collective labour deals that kept them from being locked out last month. CN said Monday its unionized clerical/intermodal/fleet mechanic, CNTL and excavator-operator units, all represented by Unifor locals, have all voted in favour of agreements with 51-month terms. The […] Read more

Jocelyne Handfield Rheaume, who lost her husband to a work-related farm injury, is featured on a video prepared for Quebec’s Farm Health and Safety Week. (SiOnSavait.ca)

General, Machinery

Ag Safety Week urges farmers to “be the difference”

By Country Guide Staff March 14, 2015

Reading Time: 2 minutes Acting to improve a farm’s safety systems before a problem appears is the focus of this year’s Canadian Agricultural Safety Week, beginning Sunday. The week, running March to 21 in a co-promotion between the Canadian Agricultural Safety Association (CASA) and the Federation of Agriculture (CFA) with sponsorship from Farm Credit Canada, is themed “Be the Difference.” […] Read more

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, shown here with Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities (SARM) president Ray Orb in Saskatoon on Thursday, said Canada’s big two railways can’t be allowed to define “satisfactory” in terms of grain handling service. (PMO photo by Jill Thompson)

Crops, Machinery, Markets, Reuters

Railways can’t dictate terms on grain backlog, Harper says

By Randall Palmer March 12, 2015

Reading Time: < 1 minute Reuters — Canadian Pacific Railway and Canadian National Railway have such huge market power that they cannot be allowed to dictate how Canada’s grain shipment backlog is cleared, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on Thursday. Harper said in an appearance in Saskatchewan that the grain backlog was not nearly as bad as it was a […] Read more

Crops, Machinery, Markets

Manitoba Case dealerships to join Rocky Mountain chain

By Country Guide Staff March 10, 2015

Reading Time: 2 minutes Predicting a “challenging environment” ahead for revenue growth as crop prices slip, Case IH dealership mega-chain Rocky Mountain Equipment is set to expand further into Manitoba. Calgary-based RME on Tuesday announced its fourth-quarter and year-end results plus a deal to buy southern Manitoba dealership chain Chabot Implements for $6.8 million. Family-owned Chabot includes dealerships at […] Read more

Daily Network News

Canadian aquaculture should be classed as agriculture, industry groups say

CBOT Weekly: April supply and demand report a ‘nothing burger’

Canada blocks meats, dairy from Greece over foot-and-mouth disease

Machinery