Crop chem firm Gowan Canada has picked up registration for its first biological product in the Canadian horticulture market. The product, called EcoSwing, is approved for control of mummy berry in high-bush blueberries and powdery mildew in cucurbits such as pumpkins, squash and cucumber. It’s also approved for suppression of apple scab in apples and […] Read more
Plant-based plant protection
Buhler going private
Farm equipment maker Buhler Industries has made a deal with its majority owner that will take the Winnipeg company private, delisting it from the TSX.
Editor’s Rant: No soy registrado
Why’s a potentially helpful nematicide for soy crops not up for registration here?
Surely a made-in-Canada nematicide would be a boon for Prairie soy growers before soybean cyst nematode gets any further foothold up here on the Prairies, right? Well, no.
Editor’s Rant: Get lost, grandkid
If we don’t talk openly about scams we’re condemned to have them repeated on us
It’s not like I marked the exact date or time on the calendar, but otherwise I still clearly recall the day I officially got old. It wasn’t while having to catch my breath after taking the stairs. It wasn’t from the first time my feet got sore standing in line, being asked if I wanted […] Read more
U.S. hail insurer looks northward
Farmers Mutual Hail Insurance Co. of Iowa has made its first venture outside the U.S., buying the 80 per cent of Prairie crop hail insurance firm Palliser Insurance it didn’t already own, for an undisclosed amount. FMH CEO Shannon Rutledge said in a release in February that Palliser’s “regional expertise, knowledge and accomplishments…will contribute to […] Read more
Editor’s Rant: We’re all Phil now
It’s been a long time since I’ve watched the movie Groundhog Day, where Bill Murray plays a weatherman doomed to live out the same day over and over again, but I’d say that to see pundits talking — on and around Groundhog Day, of all days — about the suddenly urgent need to diversify Canada’s […] Read more
Fortress makes room for peas, lentils
We’ve had a lot of discussion in these pages lately about herbicide-resistant wild oats, so you’ll be interested to know Gowan Canada last month picked up a label expansion for its pre-plant granular herbicide Fortress MicroActiv, to include its use in field peas and lentils. Fortress, which combines triallate (Group 15) with trifluralin (Group 3), […] Read more
AgWest expands westward
Two Saskatchewan sites join the Agco dealership group
During Ag Days last month in Brandon, farm equipment dealer chain AgWest announced it’s making its first move into Saskatchewan, buying the Yorkton and Weyburn locations of another Agco dealer, Agriterra Equipment. “This is a natural extension of our current presence in Elie, Neepawa, Brandon, Russell and the Swan River region in Manitoba,” AgWest’s CEO […] Read more
Editor’s Rant: Canadian graffiti
The government's conditions for a Bunge/Viterra marriage left much to be desired
I’ve got to admit, I’ve never fully understood the geometry behind federal regulators’ decisions on which assets a company has to sell in exchange for clearance on a big merger or takeover. There may well have been a solid reason why, after Husky sold off its retail gas stations in 2022, our neighbourhood wound up […] Read more
Bayer betting on Prairie camelina
Saskatoon-based Smart Earth has been working to optimize the oilseed
A Saskatoon company’s camelina catalogue is expected to go to develop new farmed fuels under Bayer’s guidance. Bayer announced in January it has closed a deal to buy the camelina germplasm and intellectual property assets of Smart Earth Camelina Corp. There’s been a fair amount of ink over the past 20-odd years about camelina and […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
