CN can continue to run its advance car booking program for grain hopper cars while the Canadian Transportation Agency hears the complaint against it, the CTA ruled Friday. The railway’s advance booking programs are at the heart of a level-of-service complaint against it to the CTA, filed by the Canadian Wheat Board and five smaller […] Read more
CN’s hopper car bookings can continue: CTA
Quebec funds agro-environmental R&D
The Quebec government has put up $2.7 million as part of a $4 million project to add research and development capability for agro-environmental goods and services at the Centre de developpement bioalimentaire du Quebec at La Pocatiere, about 90 miles northeast of Quebec City. The investment will allow the CDBQ to buy new, specialized equipment […] Read more
Canadian vintners to study HACCP
Five wineries are testing out a new HACCP food safety protocol for the Canadian wine industry. The Canadian Vintners Association on Friday picked up $312,000 in federal funding to develop an industry-wide system using the U.S.-developed Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) model. The five wineries are assessing the HACCP materials developed by the CVA […] Read more
Premiums just cover ’07 Prairie hail claims: insurers
Estimates so far from Prairie farmers’ hail claims for 2007 come in at $208 million, just short of the $211 million collected in premiums, according to a hail insurers’ group. The Canadian Crop Hail Association said Friday in the last of its bimonthly reports for 2007 that “considerably more” cash will be paid out in […] Read more
Wind, sun power Alta. air monitoring station
Alberta’s West Central Airshed Society has opened the province’s first air monitoring station powered by solar and wind energy. The station, one of 127 air monitoring stations in the province, is meant to provide background data to help manage air quality in the province. The Alberta government, which put up $40,000 toward the design and […] Read more
Barley market not tied to single-desk fight: Ritter
Prices for Prairie barley have little to do with the prospects of an open market and have climbed, not fallen, said Canadian Wheat Board chairman Ken Ritter Thursday, rebutting claims Wednesday by Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Ritter said Harper’s comments in the House of Commons, which were part of his response to Tuesday night’s throne […] Read more
McCain sells packaged juice business
McCain Foods Canada has signed a deal to sell its packaged juice business to Quebec juice company A. Lassonde for an undisclosed sum. The operations, referred to as its “aseptic beverage” business, involve McCain’s Old South, Zwak and Junior Juice lines of single-serving and large juice boxes. McCain keeps its Old South, McCain and Cool […] Read more
Sask. avian flu flock buried: CFIA
Burial of all birds and all litter from barns on a “depopulated” southern Saskatchewan poultry farm is complete, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said Thursday. Decomposition after burial will effectively kill the highly pathogenic H7N3 avian flu virus that infected some birds in the Regina Beach-area flock, the agency said. The burial, however, doesn’t spell […] Read more
Lillian wheat caught on quick: CWB survey
Lillian, a milling wheat variety launched last year, is already the most commonly seeded red spring wheat on the Prairies, the Canadian Wheat Board found in its annual variety survey. Lillian, known for a solid stem that resists damage caused by the wheat-stem sawfly, made up 14.8 per cent of all CWRS seeding on the […] Read more
Safflower drug back on track
A Calgary biotech company’s plans to make cardiovascular drugs from safflower will resume after a false start this summer. SemBioSys Genetics — which is already known for breeding gene-altered safflower that produces insulin — had first announced in July that it had bred safflower lines that could make commercial levels of “Apo AI,” a major […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
