Reading Time: 2 minutes More than two dozen farmers are moving ahead with legal action against Purely Canada Foods after it failed to honour contracts for gluten-free oats. The dispute centres on 2022 gluten-free oat contracts. On March 1, 2023, the company sent a letter to the farmers saying it was voiding the contracts because oat processing machinery had failed the previous fall and it couldn’t accept the crop.

Court remedy sought for unfulfilled contracts
Sask. company claims equipment breakdown at a third-party mill caused it to declare force majeure on contracted oats

Prairie spring wheat bids start year on a soft note
The Canadian dollar again weakened relative to the greenback
Reading Time: 2 minutes Spring wheat bids in Western Canada moved lower during the first week of 2024, as losses in the United States futures more than countered the supportive influence of a weaker Canadian dollar.

Feed weekly outlook: Several factors weighing on prices
Warm weather means less feed needed, easier movement says analyst
Reading Time: < 1 minute Feed grain prices across the Canadian Prairies are expected to continue falling back for the next few months due to a number of reasons, according to Evan Peterson of JGL Commodities in Saskatoon, Sask.

Prairie forecast: Winter temperatures moving in
Issued Jan. 03, covering: Jan. 3 – 10
Reading Time: 3 minutes Looking at this forecast period, the best way I can describe it is that we will be seeing a slow slide into more seasonal temperatures. The persistent upper-level ridging that brought warm--and record warm temperatures--to much of the prairies in December has broken down. The weather models are showing a trough of low pressure developing over the west coast over the next seven days.

Sask. union serves Viterra strike notice
Grain handling giant says its committed to negotiation, but has contingency plans in place
Reading Time: < 1 minute Yesterday, the union issued Viterra a 72-hour notice that they intend to strike as early as 2:00 pm on Jan. 5.
GSU members from Viterra Country Operations and Maintenance and Viterra's Regina head office have been negotiating for "fair wages, improved work-life balance, and workplace respect," for more than a year, the union said.

Hepworth honoured for agricultural achievements
The London, Ont. resident started as a Sask. farmer and vet before moving to politics, then research
Reading Time: < 1 minute Lorne Hepworth, former Saskatchewan agriculture minister and current chair of the Agriculture Research Institute of Ontario, has been named a member of the Order of Canada.

Prairie forecast: One more week of above average temperatures
Issued Dec. 27, covering Dec. 27 to Jan. 3
Reading Time: 3 minutes As we head into a new year, it's looking like this could be the last mild forecast period before a switch to a more typical winter weather pattern.
As usual, there is always a fair bit of uncertainty in forecasts beyond seven or so days, but we all knew that at some point we'd see some cold wintery weather move in.

Prairie forecast: Mild and dry weather right through to the New Year
Issued Dec. 20, covering Dec. 20 to Jan. 1
Reading Time: 3 minutes The holiday weather picture is starting to shape up, and if you're hoping for a perfect Christmas day with falling snow, I wouldn’t get my hopes up. If you are hoping for a continuation of mild winter weather, then it looks like you are in luck.

Feed weekly outlook: U.S. corn imports keep lid on Prairie feed grains
Mild Prairie weather contributing to lower feed demand
Reading Time: < 1 minute Glacier FarmMedia – Feed prices for barley and wheat across much of Western Canada are very likely to remain low until the end of winter/the beginning of spring, according to Erin Harakal of Agfinity in Stony Plain, Alta.

Prairie forecast: Mild and dry weather right up to the holidays
Issued Dec. 13, covering Dec. 13 to Dec. 25
Reading Time: 3 minutes Here is the big picture: there are two current storm tracks across North America. The first, which is well to our north, is the storm track that would normally be across our region. So far this winter, it has been displaced to our north – one of the reasons we have been dry. The second storm track is well to the south across the southern U.S. This places us under a rather slack flow as we oscillate between pushes of warm and cool air with each passage of low-pressure to our north.