The average value of farmland in Canada is continuing to rise faster than farmers’ ability to generate revenue from it, Farm Credit Canada’s latest Farmland Values Report suggests. The report, released Monday, shows the average value of Canadian farmland rose 5.2 per cent in 2019 over 2018, the smallest year-over-year increase since 2010, and down […] Read more
Canadian farmland trending less affordable in FCC report
Average values continue rising across board
Wendy’s launches Canadian-made plant-based burger
Pea protein patty developed 'in-house,' company says
Burger chain Wendy’s has set out to meet what it says is now an “expectation” in the Canadian quick-service dining sector, with a new pulse crop-based burger. The U.S. chain’s Canadian arm on Thursday announced it has launched a plant-based burger it calls the Plantiful at its 380-plus Canadian stores, using a patty it described […] Read more
Grain groups seek ‘essential service’ status for rail
With Canadian National Railway’s conductors and yard workers headed back to work, several Canadian grain groups now want to head off any future job action in the rail sector. CN and the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference announced separately Tuesday they had reached a tentative agreement ending an eight-day strike by over 3,000 unionized staff. The […] Read more
P+H to buy Louis Dreyfus’ Prairie elevators
Updated — Commodities and agrifood giant Louis Dreyfus Co. is stepping out of the grain handling business it built in Canada with a deal to sell its Prairie elevator network. Louis Dreyfus (LDC) announced Wednesday it has an agreement in place to sell its 10 elevators across Western Canada to Winnipeg grain company Parrish and […] Read more
Appeal court overturns ruling against canola ‘streaming’ contracts
A southeastern Saskatchewan farmer and canola company Input Capital are going back to court now that a ruling last year, which ripped the company’s “streaming” contracts with the farmer as “unconscionable,” has been overturned on appeal. The Saskatchewan Court of Appeal, in a ruling issued Friday, set aside a 2018 Court of Queen’s Bench “finding […] Read more
P+H to double down on northwestern Manitoba grain
UPDATED/CORRECTED, Aug. 17 — Winnipeg grain company Parrish and Heimbecker has plans to double its grain handle out of northwestern Manitoba with a new elevator and crop input centre. The company announced Aug. 1 it will put up a new facility in the RM of Gilbert Plains, with 25,000 to 30,000 tonnes of storage capacity […] Read more
Phase-outs planned for clothianidin, thiamethoxam
The remaining two of the big three neonicotinoid insecticides will be phased out of nearly all on-farm use in Canada in the next few years under a proposal from Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency. PMRA officials on Wednesday announced 90-day consultation periods on its decisions for both clothianidin and thiamethoxam, following “special reviews” which […] Read more
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
Editors’ Picks: H1N1 hits first U.S. hog
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has confirmed the country’s first case of pandemic H1N1 influenza in a hog, following tests on samples collected at the Minnesota State Fair this summer. Samples collected at the fair, held Aug. 27 to Sept. 7 in St. Paul, were part of a University of Iowa and University of Minnesota […] Read more