Funeral services will be held Wednesday at Birch Hills, Sask. for farm equipment inventor, seed grower and long-time Grainews columnist Harvey Gjesdal. Gjesdal, who died Friday at Birch Hills at age 92, was prominent for decades among Prairie farmers, in part for patents on equipment still in widespread use today, including the Gjesdal “Five-in-One” rotary […] Read more
Prairie seed grower and inventor Harvey Gjesdal, 92
Ag work mostly outside feds’ foreign worker plan overhaul
Canadian farms importing temporary workers won’t be subject to most of the federal government’s moves to rein in businesses’ use of temporary foreign workers. Employment Minister Jason Kenney and Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander on Friday announced what they billed as a “comprehensive overhaul” of the federal Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP). Kenney in […] Read more
Farm think-tank tapped out as George Morris Centre folds
Facing “challenging” financial straits, one of Canada’s best-known agriculture and agri-food research organizations has announced plans to close later this year. The board of the George Morris Centre on Thursday announced it plans to dissolve the Guelph-based organization, and transfer its net assets back to the University of Guelph’s Ontario Agricultural College (OAC). The centre […] Read more
China trade trip seen clearing paths for beef, fruit, hay
A Canadian trade mission to China is reported to be paying dividends including a formal agreement through which China will move toward accepting Canadian bone-in beef. That agreement, announced Tuesday, calls for China to work with Canadian officials to provide access for Canadian bone-in beef derived from animals less than 30 months of age (UTMs) […] Read more
Southern Alta. readies ‘de-watering’ equipment
Alberta’s provincial agriculture department is distributing pumps to communities in the province’s south to support “de-watering efforts” as waterways rise under continued rainfall pressure. Municipalities and response agencies have reported to the province that the impact to date from heavy rainfall in the region is “significantly lower” than last year’s flooding. However, a number of […] Read more
S. Alberta watching waterways, threat seen less severe than 2013
Faced with “significant” rainfall, parts of southern Alberta and downstream jurisdictions have again been bracing for late-spring flooding. The province said Wednesday it’s moving “pre-emptively” to co-ordinate responders and has activated its 24-hour provincial emergency operations centre. “Thankfully, the flood threat we are seeing this year is not as severe or widespread as what we […] Read more
Canola pest expert Lloyd Dosdall, 61
Memorial services are to be held Thursday at Sherwood Park, Alta. for University of Alberta entomologist and researcher Lloyd Dosdall, hailed especially in the Prairie canola industry for his work against the crop’s insect pests. Dosdall, who’d been undergoing treatments for cancer over the past two years, died last Thursday at age 61. Born and […] Read more
New clubroot pathotype confirmed, can stump resistant canolas
A second round of tests on a clubroot pathotype found in the Edmonton area confirms it’s a new type that can beat canola varieties bred for clubroot resistance. “This is a different pathotype that none of the commercially available clubroot-resistant varieties in Western Canada are effective at managing,” plant pathologist Stephen Strelkov of the University […] Read more
PotashCorp to keep N.B. mine running, for now
“Ongoing tightness” in the granular potash market will keep a New Brunswick mine staffed and operating past its scheduled closing date. Fertilizer giant PotashCorp announced Monday it has “rescinded” the layoff notices for about 50 employees at its Penobsquis mine at Sussex, N.B. The layoffs had been issued in the wake of cost-cutting measures the Saskatoon […] Read more
Bloc ag critic’s leadership bid comes up short
Andre Bellavance, the Bloc Quebecois’ critic for agriculture, agri-food and international and interprovincial trade, finished second Saturday in a two-man race for the federal party’s leadership. Mario Beaulieu, head of the pro-sovereignty Societe Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Montreal from 2009 until this year, was elected Saturday as the Bloc’s new leader. He replaces Daniel Paille, who stepped […] Read more
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