(Dave Bedard photo)

Vale sells fertilizer unit to Mosaic

Brasilia/Sao Paulo | Reuters — Vale SA’s US$2.5 billion sale of its fertilizer business to Mosaic Co., the latest step in the Brazilian iron ore miner’s strategy to reduce debt, also makes it the U.S. company’s biggest shareholder. Mosaic, which made the deal to improve its access to Brazil’s vast agricultural markets, will pay $1.25 […] Read more

Crop diversity, rotational diversity and, if possible, getting animals on the land, are the ways to start building soil health.

Cover crops for better soil health

Cover crops can help build the “livestock” that lives in the soil and improves productivity

It appears that the idea of farmers improving the soil is starting to take hold. The Western Canadian Soil Health Conference was held in Edmonton, Alberta, the first part of December 2015. Nora Paulovich and Tom Fromme, co-chairs on the organizing committee, did a wonderful job pulling speakers together and organizing it. It started at […] Read more


leafy spurge

Training cattle to eat leafy spurge

With leafy spurge acres spreading, it’s time to bring on some new tactics

There’s a reason why “spurge” rhymes with “scourge.” The last economic impact analysis of the noxious weed in Manitoba, which came out in 2010, concluded that leafy spurge costs the province $40.2 million every year due to lost grazing capacity, costs of chemical controls on roadsides and indirect costs. In 2010, there were roughly 1.2 […] Read more

(Dave Bedard photo)

Monsanto shareholders back Bayer deal

Chicago | Reuters –– Shareholders of U.S. seeds and agrochemicals company Monsanto approved the company’s US$66 billion acquisition by Bayer on Tuesday, a deal that still requires regulatory approval to close as expected in late 2017. Increased research and development spending by the combined companies and plans to develop a global seeds and biotechnology hub […] Read more


(Dave Bedard photo)

FCC doubles down on Young Farmer Loans

Eligible farmers under age 40 will be able to get larger loans for less of a down payment through an expansion of Farm Credit Canada’s Young Farmer Loan plan. The federal farm lending agency on Wednesday announced the program’s credit limit per applicant will be doubled to $1 million, with a minimum down payment of […] Read more

DuPont’s Canadian head office in Mississauga. (Dupont.com)

Trump win unlikely to impact Dow deal, DuPont CEO says

Boston | Reuters — DuPont CEO Ed Breen said on Thursday the incoming administration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is not likely to have an impact on his company’s planned merger with rival Dow Chemical. While Trump was critical of other large mergers during the campaign, Breen said many U.S. Justice Department officials reviewing the […] Read more





(Jack Dykinga photo courtesy ARS/USDA)

U.S. patent agency to weigh rival claims on CRISPR

Reuters — The U.S. patent agency on Tuesday will hear arguments in a heated dispute over who was first to invent a revolutionary gene-editing technology known as CRISPR. Hundreds of millions of dollars may be at stake, as the technology promises commercial applications in treating genetic diseases, engineering crops, and other areas. CRISPR works as […] Read more

Soil moisture (top five cm of soil) on Prairies for November 2016, measured as difference from average. (AAFC Drought Watch map)

Winter wonderland piles on saturated eastern Prairies

CNS Canada — While a wave of snow slowly pummels parts of Saskatchewan and much of Manitoba, one soil moisture expert says water is still trickling through the soil into natural water channels. According to Trevor Hadwen, agroclimate specialist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Drought Watch program in Regina, this is a good thing, as […] Read more