Man. canola checkoff to double

Manitoba canola growers’ checkoff to fund research and development will double Aug. 1 to $1 per tonne, the Manitoba Co-operator reports this week. Members of the Manitoba Canola Growers Association voted at what the paper called a “sparsely attended” meeting to raise the checkoff, by a count of 16-11 with six abstentions. The increased checkoff […] Read more

Sugar CEO eyed for CWB post: MCO

The CEO of Australia’s Queensland Sugar is expected to be named soon as the new CEO of the Canadian Wheat Board, the Manitoba Co-operator reports in its latest issue. The farm newspaper’s Jan. 24 issue quotes unnamed sources identifying Ian White, the Brisbane-based sugar firm’s managing director and CEO, as the federal government’s chosen appointee. […] Read more


Viterra picks VANOC VP as new CFO

The chief financial officer for Vancouver 2010, that city’s Olympic organizing committee, has been named the new CFO at Canada’s biggest grain company. Viterra on Thursday announced Rex McLennan will join the company Feb. 4, replacing David Carefoot. McLennan, as Viterra’s CFO, will run the company’s financial and risk management operations from its Calgary office […] Read more

Crops boost farm product price index

Statistics Canada’s farm product price index (FPPI) for November 2007 rose from the same month in 2006 on the back of escalating crop prices, the agency reported Wednesday. The statistician’s preliminary numbers for November 2007 point to a 3.7 per cent rise in the overall FPPI compared to November 2006, but a 2.6 per cent […] Read more


Ont. to fund farm help line, business training

Ontario will dip into a $20 million fund for livestock and horticulture producers to back business training and a phone-in help line. The provincial government on Wednesday said it will direct $300,000 from that funding to the Centre for Rural Leadership. The centre will use the money to identify and deliver “the greatest immediate business […] Read more

N.B. plans $3M loan program for hog farmers

New Brunswick will put up $3 million in loans for its hog farmers over the next two years, the agriculture department announced Wednesday. Citing the rising loonie, the “significant” drop in hog prices and escalating feed and fuel costs, the province said its program “will help stabilize the industry from extremes caused by this ‘perfect […] Read more


CWB calls for higher initials

The Canadian Wheat Board has put in for another increase in the initial payments for 2007-08 wheat, durum and barley. The board reported Monday that it had filed a recommendation with the federal government on Jan. 7 to raise the 2007-08 initials. Ottawa must approve such increases. A CWB initial payment is a portion of […] Read more

Mexico, Canada move toward cattle trade

Mexican and Canadian ag officials are to meet next month to review the “final details” in protocols aimed at restoring trade in live Canadian cattle. Coming out of a meeting with Alberto Cárdenas Jimenez, Mexico’s secretary for agriculture and livestock, federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said Tuesday that technical officials from the two countries will […] Read more


CN grain revenue up in ’07

Higher revenue per carload of grain helped against “strong headwinds” in Canadian National Railway’s (CN) 2007 fiscal year, the company reported Tuesday. In its year-end financial results for 2007, CN posted full-year net income of $2.16 billion on $7.897 billion in revenues, up from $2.09 billion on $7.929 billion in 2006. For the fourth quarter […] Read more

Cargill to shut two Sask. elevators

Cargill plans to close two grain elevators east of Saskatoon within the next four months and route the business to a larger elevator nearby, the company announced Tuesday. The company has scheduled “discontinuation” of its elevator at Humboldt, Sask., by the end of this month. Its elevator at Aberdeen, about 100 km west of Humboldt, […] Read more