General & Production Tips

Protestors’ vehicles block the route leading from the Ambassador Bridge, linking Detroit and Windsor, on Feb. 8, 2022. (Photo: Reuters/Carlos Osorio)

More government action likely as border blockades hit trade

Manitoba's main crossing now also blocked

By GFM Network News February 10, 2022

Reuters — The shutdown of a vital U.S.-Canada trade route is knocking out automakers’ operations as the business impact from the two-week-old protests against Canada’s pandemic measures ramp up pressure on authorities to quell the demonstrations. The protests started as a “Freedom Convoy” occupying downtown Ottawa, opposing a vaccinate-or-quarantine mandate for cross-border truckers mirrored by […] Read more

File photo of the Canada-U.S. border crossing connecting Sarnia, Ont. and Port Huron, Michigan. (Eyfoto/iStock/Getty Images)

General, Markets, Reuters

Canada, U.S. fear economic damage from border crossing protest

Headway in one area, another protest elsewhere, minister says

By GFM Network News February 9, 2022

Windsor/Ottawa/Washington | Reuters — Truckers blocking U.S-Canada border crossings risk hurting the auto industry and agriculture, the White House said on Wednesday as Ottawa urged an end to the 13-day demonstration against coronavirus mandates. After nearly two years of pandemic measures in many countries, opposition has sprung up in different ways with copycat protests in […] Read more

File photo of a view near the Canadian end of the Ambassador Bridge, which connects Windsor and Detroit and is considered one of North America’s busiest trade routes. (Steven_Kriemadis/iStock/Getty Images)

General, Machinery, Reuters

Pandemic border protests strand cattle and car parts

By Rod Nickel, GFM Network News February 8, 2022

Ottawa | Reuters — Protests in Canada against vaccine mandates have disrupted two key U.S. border crossings, and are snarling hundreds of millions of dollars daily of trade, ranging from cattle to car parts. Demonstrations who at first demanded an end to federal COVID-19 vaccine mandates for cross-border truck drivers began Jan. 28 in the […] Read more

General, Machinery

Pandemic protestors block Windsor border crossing

Commercial traffic being diverted to Sarnia

By GFM Network News February 8, 2022

Ottawa | Reuters — The busiest land crossing between the U.S. and Canada was jammed on Tuesday after Canadian protestors blocked lanes on Monday over their government’s pandemic control measures. While traffic in both directions was initially blocked, U.S.-bound lanes have since reopened, Windsor Police tweeted. Drivers demanding an end to federal COVID-19 vaccine mandates […] Read more

A restoration company vehicle sits in a flooded field at Abbotsford, B.C. on Nov. 30, 2021. (Photo: Reuters/Jennifer Gauthier)

General, Machinery, Weather

AgriRecovery underway for flood-battered B.C. farms

Feds, province put up $228 million

By Dave Bedard, GFM Network News February 8, 2022

The federal and British Columbia governments’ response to last fall’s destructive flooding now includes what’s said to be the biggest farm disaster recovery package in the province’s history. Provincial Agriculture Minister Lana Popham and her federal counterpart Marie-Claude Bibeau on Monday announced cost-shared funding of $228 million for the Canada-B.C. Flood Recovery for Food Security […] Read more

Production of Ford’s F-150 Lightning pickup at Dearborn, Mich. (Media.ford.com)

General, Machinery, Reuters

Ford to suspend or cut plants’ output on chip shortage

By Reuters, GFM Network News February 5, 2022

San Francisco | Reuters — Ford Motor Co. plans to suspend or cut production at eight of its factories in the U.S., Canada and Mexico throughout next week because of chip supply constraints, a spokeswoman told Reuters on Friday. The changes come a day after the Detroit automaker warned a chip shortage would lead to […] Read more

File photo of cropland in Greece. (Urbazon/iStock/Getty Images)

General, Markets, Reuters

Greek farmers stage tractor protest against soaring energy costs

By GFM Network News February 4, 2022

Larissa | Reuters — Farmers in central Greece on Friday protested with hundreds of tractors against soaring energy costs, dismissing government support measures as inadequate and demanding more help to cope with rising prices. The farmers parked tractors on a national highway near the town of Larissa in central Greece, where they faced off with […] Read more

Romana Didulo, the self-declared “Queen of Canada” and a leading Canadian QAnon figure, leaves after speaking on Parliament Hill as truckers and supporters continue to protest COVID-19 vaccine mandates, in Ottawa on Feb. 3, 2022. (Photo: Reuters/Patrick Doyle)

General, Reuters

Canada rules out use of troops against truck blockade

More protests planned

By GFM Network News February 4, 2022

Ottawa | Reuters — The Canadian government will not use troops against protestors whose nearly week-long demonstration against coronavirus vaccine mandates has brought traffic in central Ottawa to a halt, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday. More than 200 trucks and other vehicles have been blockading downtown roads in the nation’s capital since last Friday […] Read more

General, Markets

Vaccine protest jams southern Alberta border crossing

Premier, transportation minister called for blockade to disperse

By Dave Bedard, GFM Network News January 31, 2022

UPDATED, Jan. 31 — A major supply chain corridor between Alberta and the U.S. remained blockaded through into Sunday evening by vehicles in protest of mandates requiring foreign truckers entering Canada and the U.S. to be vaccinated. The protest on Highway 4 at the Coutts, Alta. border crossing, about 100 km southeast of Lethbridge, began […] Read more

General, Machinery

Farm cybersecurity campaign seeks farmer input

CSKA online survey open until Feb. 18

By Glacier FarmMedia staff, GFM Network News January 21, 2022

Canadian farmers are being asked for their input on a federally-backed project to assess and improve cybersecurity in Canada’s ag sector. The Community Safety Knowledge Alliance, the lead organization on the Cyber Security Capacity in Canadian Agriculture project, has put up a voluntary online survey for farm operators, running until Feb. 18, “to look at […] Read more

CFIA rejects beekeeper proposals on U.S. packaged bees

U.S. livestock: Cattle futures fall hard, hogs mixed

Alberta Crop Report: Scattered rains, crop conditions

GFM Network News