Canada intends to sign onto an international convention to give increased variety protection to plant breeders, federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz told the Canadian Seed Trade Association’s semi-annual meeting in Winnipeg on Wednesday. Ritz said the government plans to sign on to the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants convention (UPOV […] Read more
Ritz announces proposed changes to Plant Breeders Rights Act
Manitoba farmers seek extension on fertilizer deadline
Manitoba’s Keystone Agricultural Producers (KAP) farm group is still seeking a blanket extension of the province’s Nov. 10 deadline for applying fertilizer and manure to fields — but the government is betting the blast of winter in the current forecast will render the request moot. KAP president Doug Chorney said he saw lots of farmers […] Read more
Record crop meets plugged system
Record crop? Meet plugged elevator. Shippers say it’s a match made in purgatory for farmers and exporters trying to get this year’s harvest to market — and the railways are to blame. “We’re not getting enough rail capacity to move the crop right now,” Wade Sobkowich, executive director of the Western Grain Elevator Association said […] Read more
Grain industry reacts to CGC’s insurance-based security scheme
Response to the Canadian Grain Commission’s (CGC) proposal to replace its current producer security program with an insurance scheme is mostly positive. But support is contingent on the new program being cheaper than the current one — something the CGC says will be the case, even though no figures have been released yet. Keystone Agricultural […] Read more
Dawson: Crop sales to yield equity stakes in privatized CWB
Western Canadian farmers can expect to get $5 of equity in a privatized CWB, for every tonne sold to CWB this crop year. The offer was recently posted on CWB’s website, Gord Flaten, CWB’s vice-president for grain procurement, said in an interview. Details were issued to grain companies Thursday and information is also being sent […] Read more
Consultations to begin on Sask. agricultural drainage
The Saskatchewan government is asking citizens for their views on agricultural drainage through an online forum running from Sept. 1 through to March 31, 2014. “We’re looking for input and opinions because drainage has been an issue for a while and the 25-year plan (for water management) identified it as an area of concern to […] Read more
First fusarium-resistant spring wheat now in pipeline
Launching two new Canadian Prairie Spring red (CPS) wheats, including the first fusarium head blight-resistant spring wheat bred for western Canadian farmers, is a great way to cap a 40-year-long career in planting breeding, says Doug Brown. Ten years in the making, HY1615, which is resistant to the yield-crippling fusarium, and HY1610, which is 10 […] Read more
Extra teeth demanded for rail service bill
What they describe as the worst rail service in three years has prompted shippers to propose amendments to toughen the federal government’s proposed Fair Rail Freight Service Act. A coalition of shippers laid out proposals Friday for new amendments to the Act, now proposed in federal Bill C-52, in a bid to help balance their […] Read more
Man. crop insurance to expand areas for heat-loving crops
Manitoba’s crop insurance program will expand provincewide on a test basis this year in its coverage of soybeans, corn, open-pollinated corn, edible beans, sunflowers and lentils. Until now, those crops were only insurable in areas deemed to be warm enough, and with enough frost-free days. However, farmers from outside those areas have been asking for […] Read more
Prairie farm writer Rod Edwards, 72
Veteran farm reporter and former Manitoba Co-operator associate editor Rod Edwards has died following a battle with cancer. Edwards passed away Jan. 9 at age 72 at Winnipeg’s Riverview Health Centre. He worked as a reporter for the Canadian Press news agency and for the Winnipeg Free Press before joining the Co-operator in the mid-1980s. […] Read more
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