Reading Time: < 1 minute Last week just about all agriculture lands across the province received decent rain, with most areas receiving over 10mm. Three major areas received over 20 mm including western Peace, the land base along the Saskatchewan border stretching from Cold Lake down to the U.S. border and a large area west of highway 2 between Edson […] Read more
Seeding 99 per cent complete, soil moisture conditions improve
Alberta crop conditions as of June 5, 2018
Quebec ag minister won’t run again
With just under four months before the province’s next election, Quebec’s current minister of agriculture, food and fisheries won’t be in the running. Laurent Lessard ended weeks of speculation Friday when he announced he won’t seek a sixth term as the MNA for Lotbiniere-Frontenac. In a statement on Facebook, Lessard, 55, thanked his constituents for […] Read more
Bud the Spud would feel at home in Alberta’s growing potato sector
Alberta is third in potato production after P.E.I. and Manitoba, and more growth is around the corner
Reading Time: 4 minutes Most people don’t know it, but Alberta is the third-largest producer of potatoes in the country, after Prince Edward Island and Manitoba. “Currently we grow about 53,500 acres,” said Terence Hochstein, executive director of the Potato Growers of Alberta. The association’s 150 members have a big economic impact. The farm gate value of their potatoes […] Read more
Mexico hits back on U.S. steel, slaps tariffs on pork, bourbon
Mexico City | Reuters — Mexico responded in kind to U.S. President Donald Trump’s metals tariffs by imposing its own duties on U.S. steel on Tuesday, while also targeting politically sensitive agricultural products from pork to bourbon. Mexico’s peso tumbled to its weakest level since February 2017, leading losses among major currencies due to the […] Read more
Trip to Ethiopia eye opening for Fort Saskatchewan siblings
Reading Time: 4 minutes Many farmers and Albertans support the Canadian Foodgrains Bank, but few have seen the impact that their donations make. Keith and Jacilyn Goutbeck have — and won’t soon forget what they encountered on a learning tour to Ethiopia at the end of January. The siblings visited individual families in communities that had received Foodgrains Bank […] Read more
Canada clears Bayer’s Monsanto play, with conditions
Canada’s Competition Bureau says it’s “actively reviewing” BASF’s suitability as a buyer of the crop seed and chemical assets Bayer has to sell to get the bureau’s blessing to buy Monsanto. The Competition Bureau said Wednesday it has an agreement with Bayer to deal with “concerns that the proposed transaction would have significantly harmed competition […] Read more
Seeding makes good progress, surface soil moisture levels declining
Alberta crop conditions as of May 22, 2018
Reading Time: < 1 minute Warm and dry weather over the past week provided favourable conditions for seeding operations in most of the province. Provincially, seeding progress has increased 30 per cent from a week ago, to 67 per cent complete, compared to the 5-year average (2013-2017) of 83 per cent. Regionally, seeding progress is most advanced in the Southern […] Read more
Prairie potato planting slightly behind schedule
CNS Canada — After a delayed start due to the long winter and spring flooding, western Canadian potato growers are out in the fields. “We’re probably only a couple of days behind… we had farmers out on the fields last week and I think quite a few more will be moving along this week,” said […] Read more
New cropping business tools available
Reading Time: < 1 minute The 2018 versions of Cropping Alternatives and the new Crop Budget Calculator tool are now available. They allow producers to project costs, margins, and break-even yields for potential crops. Cropping Alternatives “forecasts margins based on benchmark yields, current cost of production, expected revenues, and costs by soil zone. With this information producers can get an […] Read more
Fields with wireworms needed for 2018 research
The beetle larvae can live in the soil for up to five years, and there are no insecticides available to control
Reading Time: 2 minutes Wireworms are a big problem in Alberta fields, and an entomologist is seeking help from farmers to find ways to control them. “We have a lot to learn about wireworms,” said Haley Catton who works at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Lethbridge research station. “We need to do a lot more research to figure out how […] Read more
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