File photo of a rye field in Kazakhstan. (Stsmhn/iStock/Getty Images)

Beware of Kazakhs wanting to buy seed, agency says

Seed growers and farmers alike are being warned such sales breach breeders' rights rules

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

(Dave Bedard photo)

Flax facing tightening supplies

MarketsFarm — Solid export demand has pushed Canadian flax prices up sharply over the past month, with the market working to ration demand amid expectations for tightening supplies. The flax market in general is “just gone crazy. We’re up 50 per cent since the start of harvest,” Scott Shiels of Grain Millers Canada at Yorkton, […] Read more


Diana 
and Len Desharnais on a recent trip to Germany.

Meet your farming neighbours: Len and Diana Desharnais

The Desharnais family farms in the Peace River area of northern Alberta

Every farm has its own story. No two farms (or farmers) are exactly alike. Everyone starts off farming in their own way and every farm has its own combination of family and hired staff who make decisions and keep things running. Yet, even after considering all of the details, farmers are more alike than they […] Read more

(Serts/iStock/Getty Images)

StatsCan stocks report shows lower lentils, durum, canola

Lentil supply picture 'extremely tight'

MarketsFarm — Statistics Canada’s stocks of principal field crops report detailed tight ending stocks for lentils durum and canola. As of July 31, lentil stocks totalled just 61,000 tonnes, down by 91.5 per cent from last year. Exports were up by over 30 per cent year-over-year, which accounted for some of the decrease. “It’s an […] Read more


Even as conditions dried out in April, the cover crops hung in to provide feed and weight gain on yearlings.

Cover crops fit in SE Australia

Report from Down Under: Warm-season crops produced excellent gains on grass-fed beef

With rain forecast for the next four days (in early May 2020) I take pen to paper to write about cover crops in southeast Australia. Seeding is well underway for these crops along with cereals, pulses, legumes, forages and others. The rain we are receiving across a wide swath of this part of the country […] Read more



(Dave Bedard photo)

Merged Manitoba crop groups qualify for checkoffs

Manitoba Crop Alliance also names top brass

The new unit formed from the merger of five Manitoba crop commodity organizations is set to begin collecting checkoffs for its founding groups’ crops, starting Aug. 1. The Manitoba Crop Alliance (MCA) announced Monday it now has its designation under the provincial Agricultural Producers’ Organization Funding Act. The designation allows the new organization to collect […] Read more

The nymph (juvenile) stage of 
the twice-stabbed stink bug.

New and notable Prairie crop pest insects

Haven’t heard of canola flower midge? Can’t identify those RED BUGS showing up in your fields? Didn’t know alfalfa weevil populations are developing insecticide resistance? Everything you need to know about new insect threats

Most Prairie farmers know more than they might want to about common crop pests like grasshoppers, cutworms and flea beetles. However, nature likes to throw curveballs, and pests are no exception. Here’s what you need to know about several new-to-you pests currently catching Prairie farmers by surprise. Alfalfa weevil While alfalfa weevils are familiar to […] Read more


(File photo by Lorraine Stevenson)

Farmer deliveries well above average in April

MarketsFarm — Farmer deliveries of major grains into the Canadian commercial pipeline were up substantially in April, hitting their third-highest monthly total on record, according to updated data Statistics Canada released Monday. Farmers in April delivered 5.868 million tonnes of major grains, about a million tonnes above the monthly average during the 2019-20 crop-year-to-date, and […] Read more

Two-striped grasshopper and wheat midge numbers on the rise in Saskatchewan

Two-striped grasshopper and wheat midge numbers on the rise in Saskatchewan

Another dry spring could also increase flea beetle pressure

Exactly which insect pests will chomp their way into your crops this year and how much damage they’ll do depends on wind, weather and, above all, your scouting and management choices. This year, Saskatchewan growers should keep an eye out for rising populations of two-stripe grasshopper and wheat midge, meanwhile dry spring conditions will increase […] Read more