(File photo by Dave Bedard)

Cargill buying further into Saskatchewan ag retail

Company to take up other half of Precision Ag

Reading Time: 2 minutes Cargill plans to expand its crop retail reach further into southeastern Saskatchewan by buying up the remaining half of one of its joint ventures in the region. The Canadian arm of the U.S. agrifood firm said Thursday it will buy up crop input retailer Precision Ag for an undisclosed sum, taking up the 50 per […] Read more

(File photo by Dave Bedard)

Nutrien beats profit expectation on strong potash sales

Reading Time: 2 minutes Reuters — Canadian fertilizer maker Nutrien posted fourth-quarter profit above analysts’ estimates on Wednesday as potash demand rose amid rising crop prices, sending its U.S.-listed shares up in extended trade. Fertilizer producers have benefited from high U.S. crop exports, including record-large corn sales to China. With crop prices touching multi-year highs, farmers are poised to […] Read more


An ammonia and nitrogen fertilizer plant in Russia. (Saoirse_2010/iStock/Getty Images)

High fertilizer prices likely to climb more

Reading Time: 2 minutes MarketsFarm — Expect fertilizer prices to resume increasing, despite having fallen back recently. Prices began their sharp rise around the middle of December and beginning of January. “They will go higher as demand goes up at seeding time,” Mike Jubinville of MarketsFarm Pro in Winnipeg said. Jubinville reported urea prices have jumped $100 per tonne […] Read more

(Dave Bedard photo)

Federated Co-op buying into ag retailer Blair’s

Central, southeastern Saskatchewan sites to go into new joint venture

Reading Time: 2 minutes The ag retail arm of the Saskatchewan-based Blair’s Family of Companies is set to go into a joint venture with one of Canada’s biggest co-operatives. Blair’s and Federated Co-operatives (FCL) announced last week they’ve reached an agreement to set up a joint venture which, pending regulatory approvals, will own and operate the seven Blair’s ag […] Read more


Plot trials that show the difference in wheat stands with 100 per cent urea versus 80 per cent using ANVOL.

New in nitrogen stabilizers

Farm options for N stabilizers are expanding with two new products

Reading Time: 5 minutes [UPDATED: Feb. 3, 2021] Fertilizers are as much a part of spring on the farm as variety selection and weed control. It’s well understood that cereals, corn and canola respond to early season fertilizer applications, and there’s a growing body of research that soybeans do too. Importantly, there’s also more evidence that the nutrients going […] Read more

Yara is seeking Norwegian government funding toward switching its Porsgrunn ammonia plant’s production process to electricity by 2026. (Yara.com)

Facing green push on farm, fertilizer makers look to sea for growth

Reading Time: 4 minutes Winnipeg/Oslo | Reuters — Two of the world’s biggest fertilizer producers, CF Industries and Yara International, are seeking to cash in on the green energy transition by reconfiguring ammonia plants in the U.S. and Norway to produce clean energy to power ships. The consumption of oil for transportation is one of the top contributors to […] Read more


(PortOfThunderBay.com)

Port of Thunder Bay wraps up 21st-century-best year

Reading Time: < 1 minute MarketsFarm — The last vessel of the 2020-21 shipping season left the Port of Thunder Bay on Tuesday, wrapping up the busiest year at the port since 1997. Annual cargo volumes through came in at 10.2 million tonnes, which marked the first time the tonnage topped 10 million since 1997. A total of 9.3 million […] Read more

(Fentino/E+/Getty Images)

Bibeau promises help to farmers on rising carbon tax

Funds expected to help farmers cut emissions

Reading Time: 2 minutes A steadily rising carbon tax has a lot of Western Canada’s grain farmers wondering how they’ll compete in world markets against competitors not subjected to a similar tax. “I think the world market is also looking towards a greener economy and always more sustainable agriculture,” federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said when the question was […] Read more


Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson, with Infrastructure Minister Catherine McKenna (l) and Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault (r), speaks at the Dominion Arboretum in Ottawa on Dec. 11, 2020. (Photo: Reuters/Blair Gable)

New greening programs planned for ag alongside carbon tax hike

Carbon price to hit $170 per tonne by 2030

Reading Time: 5 minutes A new federal climate plan which further cranks up taxes on carbon emissions also includes pledges of new programs to help sink more carbon into farmland. The government on Friday released the sequel to its 2016 Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change — a “strengthened” climate plan, titled A Healthy Environment and a […] Read more

FCL’s Co-op Fertilizer Terminal at Brandon. (Photo courtesy Federated Co-operatives Ltd.)

Expansion underway on Brandon fertilizer terminal

More storage to be added at three-year-old facility

Reading Time: 2 minutes Federated Co-operatives (FCL) has started expansion work at its next-to-new fertilizer terminal in western Manitoba, to boost its capacity by almost a third. FCL announced Monday it has budgeted $5 million to add 9,000 tonnes of capacity at the Co-op Fertilizer Terminal at Brandon, bringing its maximum storage to 36,500 tonnes. Work began at the […] Read more