Brazilian meatpacker JBS SA’s logo on a tower in Jundiai, northwest of Sao Paulo in southeastern Brazil, on June 1, 2017. (File photo: Reuters/Paulo Whitaker)

JBS says it paid US$11 million in bitcoin for ransom

Cyberattack disrupted plants in North America, Australia

Reuters — Meatpacker JBS USA paid a ransom equivalent to US$11 million (C$13.3 million) following a cyberattack that disrupted its North American and Australian operations, the company’s CEO said in a statement Wednesday. The subsidiary of Brazilian firm JBS halted cattle slaughtering at all of its U.S. plants and its Alberta beef plant for a […] Read more

Farmers Edge’s online event on March 3 included a congratulatory note from TMX Group, owner of the TSX. (Farmers Edge video screengrab)

Farmers Edge launches IPO

Digital ag firm makes first public share offering to big demand

Manitoba’s best-known digital agriculture firm is now a publicly-traded company. Farmers Edge, founded in 2005 in Pilot Mound, Man. by agronomists Wade Barnes and Curtis MacKinnon, has carved out a niche using field-centric data, artificial intelligence and its FarmCommand data management platform. CEO Wade Barnes called it an exciting day during an online press conference […] Read more


(LakelandCollege.ca)

Alberta’s Lakeland to offer ag tech degree

College to launch first-in-Canada program in September

East-central Alberta’s Lakeland College is set to offer what’s billed as Canada’s first degree program in agriculture technology, as a two-year post-credential program, starting in September. The program, announced Wednesday, will consist of full-time studies at Lakeland’s campus at Vermilion, about 180 km east of Edmonton, plus “experiential learning practicums” off campus, en route to […] Read more

Charles Baron and partners brought FBN to Canada in 2017, buying Saskatchewan-based Yorkton Distributors. (FBN video screengrab via YouTube)

FBN cuts yearly membership fee to zero

Ag e-commerce firm offers free accounts to farmers

E-marketplace Farmers Business Network (FBN) has disposed of the annual membership fee that allowed members access to its various buying groups and services. California-based FBN, which has operated in the U.S. since 2014 and expanded to Canada in 2017, announced Tuesday (Sept. 15) its farmer members may now have “access to a select range of […] Read more


(Dave Bedard photo)

Adjustments likely ahead for StatsCan’s early acreage estimates

Projections still in line with grain trade's expectations

MarketsFarm — The results of the first acreage estimates for 2020 from Statistics Canada come with an asterisk, as the COVID-19 pandemic halted data collection early. Canada’s actual seeded area is expected to see some shifts from the projections released Thursday. “As a result of the timing of the COVID-19 pandemic, these estimates were produced […] Read more

A drone hovers over crops near Laval, Que. in 2015. (Onfokus/iStock/Getty Images)

Drone data firm invests in precision ag analytics

Southwestern Ontario crop input retailer and grain handler South West Ag Partners has made a deal to sell its precision agriculture analytics business to an expansion-minded drone data provider. Toronto-based Deveron UAS announced Aug. 28 it will trade a 9.9 per cent share of its business plus $320,000 cash for South West Ag’s Veritas Farm […] Read more



(FarmersEdge.ca)

Farmers Edge to use data to edge into insurance sector

Farmers Edge has signed a four-year agreement with global reinsurance company PartnerRe to bring precision farming technology together with ag insurance. Under the agreement announced this week, the two companies plan to work together to develop new insurance products for the agricultural market. While Canadian farmers have access to government-run, subsidized crop insurance programs, as […] Read more


The BeanIoT thumb-sized “smart” sensors could be deployed in grain bins to measure temperature, humidity or insect movements.

Putting “smart” beans to work in the bin

New technology has game-changing potential for grain storage monitoring

A new technology coming out of Cambridge, England could provide an easy, flexible and cost-effective way for farmers to monitor stored grain, livestock barns, greenhouses or chemical storage sheds. The BeanIoT system deploys thumb-sized “smart” sensors to monitor whatever the user requires. In a grain storage shed or bin that might be temperature, humidity, or […] Read more

Farm groups, ag tech companies agree on data privacy standards

Reuters — A consortium of farmer organizations and agriculture data technology providers on Thursday published a set of data privacy and security principles aimed at reassuring farmers that data they share with Big Data services providers will not be misused. The non-binding principles are also meant to provide companies that collect, store and analyze farmer […] Read more