(FarmersEdge.ca)

Major investment to build Farmers Edge’s data power

Canadian precision agronomy and farm data management firm Farmers Edge plans to keep taking its services to previously underserved acres around the world, with a major cash infusion from a group of its backers. Japanese commodities trading and investment firm Mitsui, Toronto commercial real estate company Osmington and the Green Growth Fund operated by investment […] Read more



LIVE BLOG: Alberta FarmTech 2016

LIVE BLOG: Alberta FarmTech 2016

Event begins Tuesday, Jan. 26 and runs to Thursday, Jan. 28

Edmonton’s EXPO Centre at Northlands is the place to be for producers and the public during Alberta FarmTech 2016, running from Jan. 26 to Jan. 28. Want up-to-the-minute information on what’s going on at FarmTech? Check out our live blog page here! FarmTech features more than 50 sessions and a world class lineup of speakers providing […] Read more

(Jack Dykinga photo courtesy ARS/USDA)

Environment commissioner criticizes neonic registrations

Ottawa | Reuters — Canada’s official environmental watchdog on Tuesday expressed concern that authorities were allowing the long-term use of pesticides linked to bee deaths despite not having enough information about the products. Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) can grant a five-year provisional license to some products to give manufacturers time to provide […] Read more


(Photo courtesy ARS/USDA)

Ontario weighs mandatory beekeeping practices in draft plan

Fresh off limiting farmers’ use of neonicotinoid seed treatments, the Ontario government now wants public comment on further moves it might make to improve the health of bees and other pollinators in the province. Among the “potential actions” up for consideration in the province’s new draft action plan are the use of public lands to expand […] Read more

(CaseIH.com)

Feds scrap ‘conditional’ pesticide approvals

Federal crop chemical regulators this summer will stop granting “conditional” registrations for new pesticides — a practice already largely on the way out, they note. Health Canada, which oversees the federal Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA), said Tuesday it plans to stop granting new conditional registrations starting June 1, describing the move as an “important […] Read more



Pacific Ocean sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies for the week centred on Jan. 6. (CPC.ncep.noaa.gov)

U.S. forecaster sees El Nino conditions weakening

Reuters — The El Nino phenomenon currently affecting weather is expected to weaken during the Northern Hemisphere spring and transition to normal conditions by late spring or early summer, a U.S. government weather forecaster said Thursday. The Climate Prediction Center (CPC), an agency of the National Weather Service, was in line in its monthly forecast […] Read more