(Dave Bedard photo)

Agrium, PotashCorp shareholders vote on merger next month

Reuters — Agrium and PotashCorp shareholders will hold separate meetings next month to vote on a merger agreement between the two fertilizer companies, they said in a filing on Thursday. The all-stock deal would combine Potash’s crop nutrient production capacity, the world’s largest, with Agrium’s farm retail network, North America’s biggest. Agrium shareholders will meet […] Read more



(Photo courtesy Agrium)

Vale fertilizer sale seen on track despite review

Rio de Janeiro | Reuters — Vale SA’s plan to dispose of fertilizer assets remains on track despite a request last week by Brazil’s state development bank, BNDES, to analyze the transaction more carefully, according to two people with direct knowledge of the situation. Terms of the deal, which involves the sale of certain assets […] Read more

Henry (l) and Rich Braul stand in a leafcutter bee shelter.

Still going strong after 50 years

Leafcutter bee pioneers ‘still learning’ after all that time

When Henry Braul and his brother John decided to take a risk and invest in leafcutter bees to pollinate their alfalfa seed fields near Rosemary, Alta., “we were the only ones,” he says. “Everyone was watching us and smiling behind our backs.” Braul bought his first batch of larvae in three two-gallon pails for $700 […] Read more


(Dave Bedard photo)

Monsanto surprises with adjusted profit as expenses drop

Reuters — U.S. seeds and agrochemicals company Monsanto, which agreed last month to be bought by Germany’s Bayer for US$66 billion, reported a surprise adjusted profit, helped by a drop in expenses and higher corn seed volumes. Monsanto agreed in September to a sweetened $128-per-share offer from Bayer that, if approved by regulators, would create […] Read more

(Dave Bedard photo)

Manitoba farmers feel left out on farm policy tour

CNS Canada –– Manitoba has been dropped from an upcoming consulting tour meant to lay the foundation for Canada’s next agricultural policy funding framework. That will limit the province’s producers, the head of an industry group says. The House of Commons’ standing committee on agriculture and agri-food is holding a consulting tour to hear from […] Read more



Farmers push past rainy weather to advance harvest

Saskatchewan Crop Report for the week ending September 26

Despite the weekend rain, producers were still able to make progress with harvest. Seventy per cent of the 2016 crop is now combined and 22 per cent is swathed or ready to straight-cut, according to Saskatchewan Agriculture’s weekly Crop Report. The five-year (2011-2015) average for this time of year is 79 per cent combined. Regionally, […] Read more