A sign for Lytton, B.C. on July 1, 2021. (Photo: Reuters/Jennifer Gauthier)

Feds halt CN, CP trains through B.C. wildfire area for two days

'Extended recovery' expected for westbound grain traffic

Updated — A federal ministerial order has been issued halting Canadian National and Canadian Pacific rail movement through the Kamloops area of British Columbia for 48 hours from midnight Friday. Transport Minister Omar Alghabra announced the order late Thursday, ahead of an authorized tour Friday by evacuated residents to the largely-destroyed village of Lytton, about […] Read more

The Italgrani USA durum mill at St. Louis, Missouri. (CNW Group/Richardson International)

Richardson to buy major U.S. durum processor

Italgrani's milling, grain handling assets to go to Winnipeg firm

Agrifood firm Richardson International is set to expand and further diversify its grain processing space with a deal for what’s billed as North America’s single largest durum flour and semolina miller. The Winnipeg company said Thursday it will buy 100 per cent of the shares in Italgrani USA Inc., whose assets include a mill, elevator […] Read more


CBOT December 2021 corn (candlesticks) with MGEX, CBOT and K.C. September 2021 wheats (green, yellow and orange lines). (Barchart)

U.S. grains: Soybeans, corn fall on cool, wet forecast

Wheat supported by dryness in northern Plains

Chicago | Reuters — Chicago soybean futures ended lower on Thursday, pressured by cool, rainy forecasts across the U.S. growing belt, though dryness in the upper Midwest continues to threaten developing crops. Corn eased as beneficial rains aided crops entering pollination, while wheat firmed as sparse moisture reached drought-hit spring wheat regions. The most-active soybean […] Read more



You may have only got up close and personal to fababeans at a field day (such as Canolapalooza in Lacombe in 2019) but the pulse may soon be more widely grown — especially if aphanomyces limits the ability to grow peas and lentils every three or four years.

What can you grow if root rot kicks out peas and lentils?

You may need an eight-year break between those crops, but there are some other pulses to consider

Glacier FarmMedia – With aphanomyces threatening peas and lentils, what can producers do to keep pulses in the rotation? Pulse growers are being urged to go up to eight years between plantings of either peas or lentils, which dominate pulse acres in the province. “Our susceptible crops are pea and lentil and, to a lesser extent, dry […] Read more

People queue up outside a public supermarket’s doors in Ciudad Bolivar, Venezuela, in April 2015. (iStock/Getty Images)

World Food Programme starts distributing food in Venezuela

Reuters — The U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) said Wednesday it had begun distributing school meals to children in Venezuela, where some seven million people require humanitarian assistance after years of economic collapse in the once-prosperous OPEC nation. The WFP’s first take-home rations were distributed for children under six years old at some 277 schools […] Read more


The Blair’s agro centre at Lipton, Sask. (Blairs.ag)

Co-op, Blair’s joint venture to sell one crop input centre

Regulator sees overlap between Co-op, Blair's at Lipton

A new joint venture formed to run seven existing crop input retail centres in central and southeastern Saskatchewan will settle for six. The federal Competition Bureau on Wednesday announced an agreement with Federated Co-operatives (FCL) and the ag retail arm of the Saskatchewan-based Blair’s Family of Companies toward approval of their proposed joint venture. Blair’s […] Read more




CBOT November 2021 soybeans (candlesticks) with 20-, 50- and 100-day moving averages (yellow, green and black lines). (Barchart)

U.S. grains: Soy futures rebound on declining crop condition

Forecast rain has eased U.S. corn yield fears

Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Board of Trade soybean futures rose on Wednesday, recouping a portion of heavy losses from a day earlier, as a lower-than-expected U.S. crop rating tempered hopes that rain will improve field conditions. Rains from Friday into next week will offer timely moisture for corn that will be in the key […] Read more