Reading Time: 2 minutes Ag and tech leaders encouraged employers to think outside the agricultural box when looking to hire workers in order to expand the labour pool. “I’m one of the lucky ones,” said Brenna Mahoney, general manager of Keystone Agricultural Producers (KAP). Mahoney entered the industry with no agriculture experience. She had training in human resources and […] Read more

Think outside the agriculture box for labour, ag and tech leaders say
Agriculture in the Classroom is reaching non-farming students with inspiration for ag jobs, panelists say

PSAC federal worker strike could hit at grain transport
Prolonged strike could cause grain shipment delays, lead to demurrage costs
Reading Time: 4 minutes The Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) strike is drawing fire from Canadian agricultural commodity groups — mostly concerned with how grain transportation could be disrupted. The Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association issued a strongly worded press release on Tuesday after striking picketers targeted Vancouver’s Cascadia grain terminal, co-owned by Viterra and Richardson International. “A […] Read more

Manitoba to consolidate and shut agriculture, MASC offices
Province announces 'new rural service delivery model'
Reading Time: 3 minutes Updated, Jan. 7 — Manitoba’s agriculture and resource development department and crop insurance and ag lending agency will close their offices in 21 communities and consolidate others this spring, in a bid to reduce their “physical footprint.” Agriculture Minister Blaine Pedersen on Wednesday announced what the province billed as “a new rural service delivery model […] Read more

Former KAP president promoted at CGC
KAP GM to replace Chorney as CGC's assistant chief
Reading Time: 2 minutes The acting chief commissioner for Canada’s grain handling regulator has formally levelled up to the chief’s role, while the GM of Manitoba’s general farm group replaces him at the second seat. Federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau on Monday appointed Doug Chorney — an agricultural engineer and grain and oilseed grower at East Selkirk, Man. — […] Read more

Carbon pricing not having ‘significant impact’ on grain drying, Bibeau says
Conservatives, ag groups dispute government's numbers
Reading Time: 3 minutes Ottawa — Grain drying costs an average of $210 to $819 per farm in carbon taxes, according to federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau. Her department used data provided by grower groups – including Manitoba’s Keystone Agricultural Producers (KAP) and the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan (APAS) – to arrive at the figures. The federal estimate […] Read more

Carbon tax an eight per cent hit on net income, APAS says
Reading Time: 2 minutes The average Saskatchewan farmer can expect to lose about eight per cent of his or her annual net farm income to the federal carbon tax to 2020 — and 12 per cent in 2022, the province’s general ag group says. The Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan on Monday released new estimates on the financial impacts […] Read more

Manitoba Beef Producers president steps down
Reading Time: < 1 minute The race to become the federal Conservatives’ candidate in Dauphin has claimed a second Manitoba farm leader. Dauphin-area rancher Ben Fox, president of Manitoba Beef Producers and the District 13 representative on the group’s board, announced Tuesday he had resigned as MBP president to seek a “federal party nomination.” MBP didn’t say which nomination Fox […] Read more

Farm fuel to be exempt from Manitoba carbon tax
Reading Time: 3 minutes Farm fuel will be exempt from a carbon tax, Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister said in an interview Thursday on the eve of announcing his government’s Made-in-Manitoba Climate and Green Plan. “It does exempt some farm costs — farm fuel, for example,” he said. “I know we’ll get pushback from some industry groups that are not […] Read more

Nitrogen looking cheap across Prairies
Reading Time: < 1 minute CNS Canada — Farmers in Manitoba may be looking to fill up on nitrogen fertilizer this fall as prices reach lows not seen in over a decade. “One retailer I talked to said it was the cheapest nitrogen prices in 15 years,” according to Dan Mazier, president of Keystone Agricultural Producers. Prices also seem to […] Read more

Keystone Agricultural Producers defends cash ticket deferrals
Reading Time: < 1 minute Manitoba’s Keystone Agricultural Producers has joined other farm groups in calling on the federal government to keep a regulation that allows farmers to defer grain sales into the following year for tax purposes. The government announced in its recent budget that it is considering eliminating grain ticket deferrals because it is a left over from […] Read more