Reading Time: 3 minutes Recommendations are now being crafted for Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau on how to improve business risk management (BRM) programs for farmers in Canada. It’s expected changes to BRM programs will be announced in July when Bibeau and her provincial counterparts meet in Guelph. The recommendations are coming after a study by MPs on the Commons […] Read more
Business risk management program reforms in development
Changes expected to be announced in July
Feed weekly outlook: Soft demand weighs on prices
Reading Time: < 1 minute MarketsFarm — Feed grain prices on the Prairies remain soft ahead of spring planting, due to quiet demand from feedlots. “Feedlots are full of grain right now,” Brandon Motz of CorNine Commodities at Lacombe, Alta. said, explaining that there’s currently a lot of grain in feeding pipelines. “Spring replacement into feedlots has been really slow.” […] Read more
Pulse weekly outlook: Conditions optimal for India’s winter crops
Reading Time: < 1 minute MarketsFarm — Cold weather in key growing regions of India could indicate high production levels for winter pulse crops. Heavy showers and colder temperatures in Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh created “ideal conditions” for winter-sown pulses, according to India’s agriculture commissioner SK Malhotra. Malhotra explained that the output of the winter-grown pulse crops will likely […] Read more
Chances of flooding in Manitoba depend on weather
Reading Time: 2 minutes MarketsFarm — Manitoba has issued its spring thaw forecast of 2020 — with high water levels coming for the Red River. That’s due to significant soil moisture levels left over from the fall and above-normal snow levels in the river’s U.S. watershed. “Our focus is currently on the Red River, where we are expecting a […] Read more
Tile drainpipe supplier AccuPipe changes hands
Pipe manufacturer back with previous Manitoba owner
Reading Time: 2 minutes Winkler drain tile manufacturer AccuPipe is back with its previous owners after a six-year stint under U.S. management. Precision Land Solutions (PLS) announced Friday it has bought the AccuPipe business — which makes HDPE tubing for the farm, commercial and construction tile drainage markets — from Minnesota-based manufacturer Prinsco for an undisclosed sum. AccuPipe had […] Read more
More tax deferral zones announced for ranchers
Final list released for 2019 tax year
Reading Time: 2 minutes More ranchers who were up against a dry 2019 may now be eligible to defer some income from their livestock sales for the income tax year. The federal government on Tuesday released the “final list” of designated regions where income tax deferral on sales of breeding livestock has been authorized for 2019. In a prescribed […] Read more
Peach grower awarded US$265 million in dicamba drift suit
Reading Time: 2 minutes Reuters — A Missouri jury’s US$265 million award to peach grower Bill Bader in his lawsuit against herbicide providers Bayer and BASF has raised the stakes for the two companies as at least 140 similar cases head to U.S. courts later this year. A jury in U.S. District Court in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, handed Bader, […] Read more
Average Prairie heat, more rain in summer forecast
Reading Time: < 1 minute MarketsFarm — Canada’s Prairies should see higher-than-normal precipitation and generally average temperatures during the 2020 growing season, according to a forecast from Scott Kehler of Weatherlogics. Speaking Thursday at CropConnect in Winnipeg, Kehler said “there’s not really a strong pattern one way or the other” when it comes to the temperature outlook. The Weatherlogics forecast […] Read more
Pulse weekly outlook: India aims to boost production
Reading Time: < 1 minute MarketsFarm — The window of opportunity for Canadian pulses to be exported to India may rapidly be closing, according to a recent announcement from India’s agriculture minister. At a World Pulses Day event on Monday, Narendra Singh Tomar said the country is on track to self-sufficiency. Last year, the country consumed about 27 million tonnes […] Read more
Drones to be tested against Africa’s locust swarms
U.N.'s FAO testing drones to detect, spray pests
Reading Time: 3 minutes Nairobi | Thomson Reuters Foundation — The United Nations is to test drones equipped with mapping sensors and atomizers to spray pesticides in parts of east Africa battling an invasion of desert locusts that are ravaging crops and exacerbating a hunger crisis. Hundreds of millions of the voracious insects have swept across Ethiopia, Somalia and […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
