Reading Time: 2 minutes A last-ditch attempt by EU governments to break a deadlock over relaxing regulations on gene-edited crops failed after countries including Poland rejected changes to the text that exempted patented seeds from the measure.
EU governments fail to agree on gene-editing rules despite patent exception
Funding to help make cattle data gathering easier
Partnership between Angus and Holstein association will look at sharing trait information and how to automate data management
Reading Time: 2 minutes New funding for the Canadian Angus Association and Holstein Canada will allow them to improve the data that goes into genetic evaluations and expand into new areas including carcass quality and traits that help limit the environmental impact of beef.
At Ag in Motion: Soybean proponents still eye western expansion
Crop seen as a good add to rotations -- if conditions are right
Reading Time: 3 minutes While canola is king of the Canadian oilseed market, the same can be said of soybeans in the United States. However, the big pulse crop south of the border has made inroads in the western provinces. Manitoba has seen the biggest growth in soybean acres with well over a million planted annually in recent years, […] Read more
Gene-edited crops clear CFIA’s regulatory bar
Agency guidance puts gene editing on level of conventional breeding
Reading Time: 4 minutes Plants gene-edited for efficient use of water or nutrients or to better withstand pests or drought now won’t have to clear the same regulatory hurdles in Canada as any crops that are modified for herbicide tolerance or include foreign genes. Federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau on Wednesday announced updated guidance from the Canadian Food Inspection […] Read more
India unveils new rice variety to reduce water use, labour
Reading Time: < 1 minute New Delhi | Reuters — India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday launched an array of new high-yielding crop varieties, including herbicide-tolerant rice that can be directly sown into the soil, cutting expenditure on water and farm workers. In India, the world’s biggest rice exporter, the conventional method of rice cultivation requires farmers to sow […] Read more
Better wheat varieties ahead
Genome editing and CRISPR technology are scoring bigger wins in shorter time frames for cereal breeding
Reading Time: 5 minutes Last November, the 10+ Genome Project and its international team of researchers were hailed for their role in sequencing the genomes of 15 wheat varieties from around the world. It was an astounding accomplishment with great potential for cereal breeding, particularly for a sector that struggles to keep up with the investments being made in […] Read more
Don’t count chickens before they hatch: Tyson bet on wrong rooster
Meat giant books unexpected decline in hatching
Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — Tyson Foods is laying off a certain type of rooster from its U.S. chicken business after a surprising discovery that eggs fertilized by the male bird hatch less often, resulting in fewer chickens. The world’s largest meat producer by sales will install a replacement across its breeding program by this fall […] Read more
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
Farmer and activist Percy Schmeiser, 89
Thorn in Monsanto's side also the subject of a new major film
Reading Time: 3 minutes Funeral services are to be held and livestreamed Saturday for Prairie farmer, businessman and activist Percy Schmeiser, best known for his ultimately unsuccessful court battles with the company behind Roundup Ready canola. Schmeiser, who farmed at Bruno, Sask., about 90 km east of Saskatoon, died Tuesday at age 89. According to Saskatchewan media, he had […] Read more
A new era of agronomics and genetics for corn
The “how” and the “why” of growing corn are attracting a lot of fresh thinking
Reading Time: 7 minutes Corn production has risen to a new level of importance, both for growers and for the industry that supports them. In spite of market pressures and uncertainty in global trade, growers, particularly those in Ontario, are firmly committed to planting row after row of the crop, basically as much as they can. Yet the reality […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
