Viterra’s Coulter Avenue elevator in Winnipeg on Jan. 22.

Editor’s Rant: Canadian graffiti

The government's conditions for a Bunge/Viterra marriage left much to be desired

I’ve got to admit, I’ve never fully understood the geometry behind federal regulators’ decisions on which assets a company has to sell in exchange for clearance on a big merger or takeover. There may well have been a solid reason why, after Husky sold off its retail gas stations in 2022, our neighbourhood wound up […] Read more

Robert Stwalley, a clinical associate professor in Purdue University’s department of agricultural and biological engineering, shows the hog cooling pad technology IHT has now licensed to make and sell in North America. (Photo: Tom Campbell/Purdue Agricultural Communication via Canada NewsWire)

Farrowing heat pad firm to bring hog cooling pads to market

Manitoba's IHT to offer new system next spring

A Winnipeg-area company providing heating pad and lighting systems for hog barns is set to add a U.S.-developed line of hog cooling pads to its product lineup. IHT (Innovative Heating Technologies) Group announced Thursday it will make and sell a line of water-cooled pads that use a patented system designed at Purdue University in Indiana, […] Read more


(Screengrab from Merit Functional Foods video via YouTube)

Merit Foods stakeholder looking to buy company

Burcon 'actively engaged' with company's receiver

One of the joint-venture owners of Winnipeg pea and canola protein processor Merit Functional Foods says it’s in talks to buy full control of the cash-strapped company. Two days after Merit entered a court-ordered receivership, Vancouver-based Burcon NutraScience announced Friday it “intends to submit a formal proposal to acquire the business.” Burcon said Merit’s receivership […] Read more

File photo of signage outside Maple Leaf Foods’ Lagimodiere Boulevard plant in Winnipeg. (Dave Bedard photo)

Expansions boost Maple Leaf plant’s bacon offerings

Pre-cooked bacon capability sets up Winnipeg plant as 'bacon centre of excellence'

The Winnipeg pork further-processing plant previously earmarked as Maple Leaf Foods’ “ham centre of excellence” now gets the same billing for bacon. The major Toronto meat processor announced Tuesday it had completed a $182 million, 73,000-square foot expansion at its Lagimodiere Boulevard prepared meats plant, to “significantly” increase its bacon production capacity. The expansion, Maple […] Read more


File photo of Agropur’s fluid milk plant in Winnipeg. (Dave Bedard photo)

Agropur to shut Winnipeg fluid milk plant

Work to be consolidated in B.C., Alberta

Dairy co-operative Agropur will consolidate its fluid milk production for Western Canada further west this fall, as it moves to shut its operation in Winnipeg. The Quebec-based co-operative announced Tuesday it will close its Winnipeg fluid milk plant effective Sept. 24 — affecting 48 jobs — and transfer that work to plants at Edmonton, Victoria […] Read more

Versatile’s Fury high-speed compact disc in transport mode. (Versatile-ag.com)

Versatile to move tillage equipment work to Winnipeg

Buhler to halt production at Vegreville next fall

The company that makes Versatile tractors and tillage equipment is set to consolidate those product lines at its plant in Winnipeg, pulling the work out of its plant in east-central Alberta. Farm equipment maker Buhler Industries announced Friday it will halt production at the former Ezee-On manufacturing plant at Vegreville, Alta. in September 2021 and […] Read more


GrainViz engineer Braden Pierce explains the system to farmers at Ag Days at Brandon, Man. in 2018. (Screengrab from GFM/Greg Berg video)

Agco to buy GrainViz system’s Winnipeg developer

System due out in limited release this fall

U.S. farm machinery firm Agco has set up a deal to buy its Winnipeg partner in the development of the GSI GrainViz grain monitoring system. Georgia-based Agco announced Friday it now has an agreement to acquire 151 Research, with which it had signed an “exclusive technology partnership” back in December 2018 to develop the GrainViz […] Read more

Artist’s rendering of the Merit Functional Foods plant under construction in Winnipeg. (Merit Foods graphic)

Bunge buys into canola, pea protein maker Merit

Agribusiness giant takes quarter stake in processor

One of the world’s biggest grain companies is getting in on a processing facility under construction in Winnipeg to extract plant-based proteins from canola and peas. Winnipeg-based Merit Functional Foods announced Thursday it has received a $30 million “capital investment” from Bunge, giving the U.S. grain firm a “minority interest” worth 25 per cent. Burcon […] Read more


Loveday mushrooms on a 2016 episode of TV cooking show “Great Tastes of Manitoba.” (Great Tastes of Manitoba video screengrab via YouTube)

U.S. mushroom giant buys major Manitoba grower

Loveday Mushroom Farms joins South Hill Champs

A major player in the North American mushroom business expects to expand its reach in the U.S. Midwest and Canada’s Prairies with a deal for a storied Winnipeg producer. South Mill Champs, formed in 2018 from the merger of Philadelphia-area producer South Mill and Aldergrove, B.C.-based Champs Mushrooms, announced Tuesday it has expanded to include […] Read more

(FIle photo by Dave Bedard)

Viterra to build new elevator near Winnipeg

New Rosser terminal to have five times the capacity

Grain handler Viterra is set to replace a relatively small concrete elevator just northwest of Winnipeg with a new higher-throughput terminal. Glencore Agriculture’s Prairie grain arm said Thursday it will build a new high-throughput in the municipality of Rosser, Man., near the northwest corner of Winnipeg’s Perimeter Highway. The new site, connecting to Canadian Pacific […] Read more