Reading Time: 2 minutes Five Unifor locals representing 361 workers with the St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corp. (SLSMC) have served their 72 hours’ notice of a strike that could shut the waterway to grain and all other traffic just after midnight Sunday at the earliest. Unifor members represented by Locals 4211, 4212 and 4323 in Ontario and Locals 4319 […] Read more
Seaway workers serve strike notice
Waterway would be 'closed to all traffic' in event of strike
Grower of Zing peppers under new ownership
Reading Time: 2 minutes A major greenhouse vegetable grower in southernmost southern Ontario is expanding its reach in the region. Mucci Farms, based at Kingsville, just west of Leamington, announced Wednesday it has bought a controlling stake in Leamington-based Orangeline Farms, the grower of Zing Healthy Foods greenhouse peppers. Financial details weren’t disclosed in Mucci’s release Wednesday, but CBC […] Read more
Ceres lands tenant for Niagara-area grain elevator
Reading Time: 2 minutes A former Robin Hood flour mill repurposed as an export grain elevator in the Niagara region will devote the bulk of its capacity to a new tenant starting next summer. Minneapolis-based Ceres Global Ag Corp. announced Tuesday it has a new long-term storage and handling agreement in place with London Agricultural Commodities (LAC). The agreement […] Read more
The news on soil health
This time, will farmers finally break the “build-up then burn-out” cycle of soil management? The Ontario Soil Network thinks the answer may be yes
Reading Time: 6 minutes Don Lobb takes a very dim view of how mankind has treated soil over the millennia, but he is slightly more hopeful for this generation, due both to our constantly growing body of knowledge about soils, and to farmers who are not only willing to experiment with better ways to take care of the soil, […] Read more
Researchers defining phosphorus movement in Ontario soils
4R strategy plays a key role in reducing phosphorous runoff
Reading Time: 3 minutes Three short huts with solar panels on them sprout in Bob McIntosh’s wheat field near St. Marys, Ont. Inside the huts are monitoring equipment that goes right to the tiles that systemically move water from his farm. His farm is one of six across Ontario with the monitoring equipment that allows University of Waterloo researchers to study […] Read more
Ontario watershed study shows overapplication of phosphorus
Reading Time: 3 minutes Farmers in one Huron County, Ont. watershed are applying almost exactly the nitrogen needed by their crops, but more than 30 per cent more phosphorus than is needed. University of Guelph researchers reached the conclusions by analyzing multiple years of data collected by the Ausable Bayfield Conservation Authority during in-person interviews with farmers in the […] Read more
Lake Erie plan’s farming recommendations released
Reading Time: 2 minutes A federal/provincial action plan to reduce phosphorus loading in Lake Erie has been released for public comment — and many of its recommendations will have implications for farmers in the Lake Erie basin. None of the numerous recommendations are particularly new or surprising and mostly call for using existing funding programs to encourage certain production […] Read more
Phosphorus program aims to reduce Lake Erie nutrients
Reading Time: 3 minutes Chatham, Ont. — Henry Denotter’s farms near Kingsville, Ont. are close to the Wigle Creek, which flows into Lake Erie and takes with it any residues it pulls from nature and farmers’ fields. The Wigle Creek subwatershed, west of Leamington, has turned into ground zero in long-term research on how farmers can reduce phosphorus running […] Read more
Success on Great Lakes phosphorus
Strong farm participation in GLASI programs shows agriculture is serious about environmental health
Reading Time: 6 minutes Great Lakes pollution has become a critical issue in the past five years. In 2011, parts of Lake Erie were mired in a serious algal bloom, prompting the International Joint Commission (IJC) to establish Lake Erie Ecosystem Priority (LEEP). The IJC issued a report in February 2014 identifying agriculture as the leading contributor to the […] Read more
Ice-free Great Lakes mean sunny outlook for seaway
Reading Time: < 1 minute CNS Canada — A lack of ice on the Great Lakes means Canada’s St. Lawrence Seaway will start shipping grain earlier than last year. Last year the seaway’s opening was delayed until the beginning of April, due to the amount of ice in the system, according to Bruce Hodgson, director of market development for St. […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
