Reading Time: < 1 minute The Beef Cattle Research Council has released Level 2 of its online record-keeping and benchmarking tool. The tool allows producers to collect and save data so it can be analyzed and used for better management decisions. Level 1 was designed for producers who are new to record-keeping or who keep records but are unsure of […] Read more
Record-keeping tool for beef producers available
Co-op Refinery, union reach tentative labour deal
Proposal now goes to ratification vote
The operators of one of Western Canada’s biggest fuel refineries have reached a tentative deal with the union representing workers locked out since December. The deal, if ratified in an employee vote, would end the lockout at Federated Co-operatives’ (FCL) Co-op Refinery Complex (CRC), a major bulk fuel supplier to farmers and rural co-ops across […] Read more
No timeline yet set for BRM reforms
Changes put on hold along with ministers' meeting
Ottawa — Federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau has confirmed any reforms to business risk management (BRM) programs are being delayed. That confirmation came during a wide-ranging media availability Bibeau held Tuesday. In March, Tom Rosser, an assistant deputy minister at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), said the government is looking at a number of options […] Read more
Insurance customers’ contact info dropped into MASC email
Crown crop insurance agency warns of privacy breach
A contact list of crop insurance customers at Manitoba Agricultural Services Corp. has gone out via email to several dozen of the Crown ag insurance agency’s customers. MASC on Monday said a file containing names and contact information of an unspecified number of AgriInsurance clients was “attached in error” to an email sent last Tuesday […] Read more
Sollio outlines pandemic recovery plan for food sector
Support sought for automation, digitization, telecommunications
Ottawa — One of Canada’s largest agri-food companies has laid out a five-point industry recovery plan for federal politicians to consider. During a meeting Tuesday of the Commons standing committee on finance, the president of Quebec-based Sollio Co-operative Group shared plans to limit consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on the agrifood supply chain. Sollio employs […] Read more
El Nino, La Nina patterns not seen prevailing during summer
London | Reuters — Sea surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific remain neutral, meaning that neither El Niño nor La Niña weather patterns are prevailing, the U.N. World Meteorological Organisation said on Thursday. The El Niño pattern brings a warming of ocean surface temperatures in the eastern and central Pacific every few years, and is […] Read more
Carrying capacity: You gotta know if it can hold ’em
Overgrazing can really hurt productivity, so it pays to know how many cows you can put on a pasture
Reading Time: 3 minutes Struggling with finding the right amount of cattle to graze on a pasture or not sure how many cattle a new rented pasture will hold? The Beef Cattle Research Council now has a calculator to help you with that. There are four basic principles of range management: Balancing forage supply and demand; managing for uniform […] Read more
Legalization lifts Canada’s net farm income in 2019
Livestock receipts up, unsmokeable crop receipts lower
A significant year-over-year increase Canada booked last year in realized net farm income rests mainly on 2019’s status as the country’s first full year in the recreational cannabis market. Statistics Canada on Tuesday released full-year data on farm income, pegging Canada’s realized net farm income for 2019 at $4.9 billion — a 10.4 per cent […] Read more
Bayer reporting progress in Roundup settlement talks
Frankfurt | Reuters — Bayer said on Monday it had made progress seeking a settlement over claims its glyphosate-based Roundup herbicide causes cancer, after Bloomberg reported the company reached a verbal agreement on about 50,000 to 85,000 cases. The drugs and pesticides group is keen to draw a line under the legal dispute, which it […] Read more
Report links business management, mental health of farmers
Farm women, young farmers report higher levels of stress, difficulties coping
Ottawa — A new report from Farm Management Canada (FMC) calls for action after determining 75 per cent of Canadian farmers reported being moderately to highly stressed about unpredictable interference, workload pressure and financial pressures. But how a farmer plans his or her business — and associated risks — can help lower that statistic. The […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
