(Photo courtesy Canola Council of Canada)

Cash advances’ interest-free portion temporarily raised

APP funds now interest-free for first $250K

The federal government’s low-interest loan guarantee program for Canadian farmers will sweeten the interest-free portion of its offer for the next two program years to help with farm cash flow. Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau on Thursday announced a temporary increase in the interest-free portion of the Advance Payments Program to $250,000, up from the usual […] Read more



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Saskatchewan shores up disaster program for bigger farms

Program extends PDAP aid to higher-revenue farm businesses

Saskatchewan farmers whose operations took damage from storms in April, but whose gross revenues overtopped the maximum for disaster assistance, will now be able to get in on that program. The province on June 16 announced “supplemental relief” via the Provincial Disaster Assistance Program to help farmers who didn’t qualify under PDAP’s usual eligibility rules. […] Read more


(Government of Alberta via Flickr)

Rains bring much-needed moisture to Alberta’s south

MarketsFarm — Rains across southern and central regions of Alberta were both much-needed and well-received during the week ended Tuesday. Both regions received 20 to 50 millimetres of precipitation, according to the province’s weekly crop report released Friday. The amount of rain that fell onto the south region was equivalent to the amount of precipitation […] Read more

(Dave Bedard photo)

Drought worsens in Alberta, but eastern Prairies wet

MarketsFarm — Highly varied precipitation across the Canadian Prairies in May saw drought conditions worsen in southern Alberta while parts of Manitoba and Saskatchewan were becoming too wet, according to the latest federal Drought Monitor report. The report, released by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) for the period ended May 31, showed that overall, 19 […] Read more


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Planting in Saskatchewan nearing its end

MarketsFarm — Spring planting across Saskatchewan reached 91 per cent complete as of Monday, according to the province’s latest crop report. That was an increase of 15 points over the week and the pace was only six behind the five-year average. However, Saskatchewan Agriculture stressed there are many acres in the eastern half of the […] Read more

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Rain helps Ontario crops as last of seeding presses on

MarketsFarm — Rains were timely in helping with crop establishment, according to the latest report from the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA). As some spring planting remained to be completed, amounts of precipitation ranged from 12 to 55 millimetres. While herbicide applications on cereals continued in southern Ontario, planting in the […] Read more


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StatCan releases satellite crop vegetation data

MarketsFarm — Statistics Canada’s crop condition assessment program (CCAP) on Thursday released its weekly normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) values from April 11 to May 29 — telling the tale of weather extremes in the Prairie provinces. As of the fourth week of May, seeding was 95 per cent complete in Alberta, compared to the […] Read more

Lisa Thompson. (LisathompsonMPP.ca)

Ontario ag minister returns in another Tory majority

Lisa Thompson retains seat in election

Ontario’s governing Progressive Conservatives will head back to the legislature with their incumbent agriculture minister at the caucus table. Lisa Thompson, Premier Doug Ford’s minister of agriculture, food and rural affairs since June last year, easily held her southwestern riding of Huron-Bruce in Thursday’s provincial election by a spread of 15,594 votes over Liberal challenger […] Read more