Testing of seed potato fields across Alberta has found no potato cyst nematode (PCN) population anywhere in the province, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said Thursday. Over 8,700 soil samples have not confirmed the pest’s presence, even after tests in October turned up the “possible presence” of PCN in two fields in the northern part […] Read more
Alta. potato pest probe comes up negative: CFIA
West’s ag councils link up on value chains
Western Canada’s agricultural councils, the support agencies for several programs promoting innovation in agriculture, will jointly back an education and awareness program to promote value chains. The four councils and their provinces’ governments will back the Western Canadian Value Chain Initiative, bringing an interprovincial focus to a series of workshops to be held this spring […] Read more
Ritz pans CWB barley pricing plan
Canada’s agriculture minister calls the Canadian Wheat Board’s proposed cash pricing option for malting barley a “half measure” he won’t support. In an opinion piece released to newspapers Tuesday, Gerry Ritz writes that the CWB’s pricing plan for the 2008 malting barley crop does not go far enough for the liking of “farm groups and […] Read more
Dow rolls out dual-action broadleaf product
Dow AgroSciences Canada has launched a new dual-action broadleaf herbicide brand for use in the Prairies’ brown and dark brown soil zones. The company has picked up registration for Benchmark in spring wheat, durum and barley. It will be available for farmers’ use this spring by the 40-acre case, Dow said, and will also be […] Read more
Central Alta. bioenergy projects get $508K
The Alberta government will put up almost $508,000 toward feasibility studies for two livestock methane power plants as well as an ethanol plant expansion. The province’s contributions, announced Wednesday, will come through its Biorefining Commercialization and Market Development program and Bio-energy Infrastructure Development program. The three contributions include: $300,000 for a study by Kingdom Farm […] Read more
WCE today, “ICE Futures Canada” tomorrow
ICE Futures Canada will be the new moniker for the Winnipeg Commodity Exchange starting tomorrow. Atlanta-based IntercontinentalExchange (ICE), which bought the WCE in August and transitioned its all-electronic trading platform to the ICE platform on Dec. 10, announced Monday that its new subsidiary will have a new name in line with its other futures subsidiaries. […] Read more
New cheese standards planned for late 2008
New federal standards for the composition of cheese are expected to allow more milk products to be used to make cheeses and to specify what can go into “aged” cheddars and other varieties. Amendments announced earlier this summer and published Wednesday in the Canada Gazette to take effect in late 2008 will cut out inconsistencies […] Read more
CPR over, CN under grain revenue caps: CTA
Canadian Pacific Railway has set a new record for excess grain revenue, the Canadian Transportation Agency announced Friday. The agency sets annual caps on the amount of revenue Canada’s railways can make from moving grain off the Prairies to port terminals at Thunder Bay, Vancouver, Prince Rupert, B.C. and Churchill, Man. CPR’s cap for the […] Read more
Maltsters “not satisfied” with CWB proposals
Canada’s big four maltsters say they’re “not satisfied” with the Canadian Wheat Board’s proposals for a guaranteed price production contract for malting barley. Details on the CWB’s proposals for a cash-price contract option for malting barley are to be widely released next month, and had been briefly outlined for CWB permit book holders in a […] Read more
Don Rennie, 85
Don Rennie, a former dean of the University of Saskatchewan’s college of agriculture and a leader in Prairie soil conservation, died Sunday in Saskatoon at age 85. Rennie taught in the University of Saskatchewan’s soil science department starting in 1952 and received several accolades for his work, including an appointment as a member of the […] Read more
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