Alberta’s plans to boost its irrigated acres are being met near the starting line with a major french fry producer’s plans to double the capacity of its plant there. McCain Foods announced Monday it will put up $600 million to build two new production lines for frozen french fries and potato specialty goods at its […] Read more
McCain to double Alberta french fry plant capacity
Lethbridge-area plant to more than double staff count
Adama’s lambda-cy products to be available this year
Company to continue selling Silencer, Zivata after recall
The Canadian arm of ag chem firm Adama says it’s relabelled its inventories of lambda-cyhalothrin insecticide products Silencer and Zivata and will have them available for sale to farmers in 2023. The company had said last November it wasn’t yet sure those products would be available this year under an approaching deadline following a 2021 […] Read more
Boldly going: Potato growers head into unexplored territory
It’s nerve-wracking to be a trailblazer, but Groot family committed to trying something very different on their farm
Reading Time: 5 minutes These days farmers are encouraged to be experimental, and to conduct trials on their own land to see what works best for them. What agronomists may not say is just how nerve-wracking it can be. And that goes double when doing something that has rarely, if ever, been done before. In the case of Gibbons-area […] Read more
Canada’s potato crop edges up in 2022
Alberta up into top spot among potato-producing provinces
MarketsFarm — Statistics Canada (StatCan) issued its potato production report Thursday, which noted a 1.5 per cent increase in the country’s crop in 2022. Across Canada, nearly 122.9 million hundredweight (cwt) of potatoes were harvested last year, with an average national yield of 322.3 cwt/acre on 381,351 acres. Alberta rose from third into the top […] Read more
Search for the holy grail of N fertilizer continues
You can now buy nitrogen-fixing bacteria for your crops but when it comes to wheat, the jury is out
Reading Time: 5 minutes A real-world test of nitrogen-fixing bacteria conducted in Alberta was a bust when it came to boosting yields, but no one is throwing in the towel yet. “It’s too early to tell. You can’t base anything off one year worth of trial data,” said Erek Bishop, a participant in one of four trials of Utrisha […] Read more
Borderline city hosts interprovincial food trade pilot
Trade barrier on pause for two years for food businesses serving Lloydminster
The idea of loosening interprovincial trade in certain foods made by provincially-inspected processors will get a major test in one of Canada’s very few province-crossing municipalities. The Saskatchewan, Alberta and federal governments on Jan. 19 announced the start of a two-year pilot project within the limits of Lloydminster, a city of over 31,000 people straddling […] Read more
Potato storage research to get boost
A federal-provincial investment goes to improve an existing storage facility at the University of Manitoba
Manitoba’s potato research landscape is getting a funding injection to improve infrastructure. The governments of Canada and Manitoba are investing $98,970 through the Canadian Agricultural Partnership to upgrade the University of Manitoba’s horticulture storage facility so it can conduct potato research. Federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau and provincial Agriculture Minister Derek Johnson made the announcement […] Read more
Step aside, bud the spud
Alberta ekes out top spot for potato production in 2022
Reading Time: < 1 minute It was a squeaker, but Alberta edged out P.E.I. and Manitoba as the country’s top potato producer this year. StatCan says provincial growers harvested 26.8 million hundredweight of spuds, just ahead of P.E.I.’s 26.6 million and Manitoba’s 26.1 million. Last year, P.E.I. – aka Spud Island – was the top dog but even though its […] Read more
The bid to irrigate east-central Alberta
BIG DREAMS: Many hurdles lie ahead, but proponents say massive $1.3-billion project is a lifesaver for struggling region
Reading Time: 6 minutes It’s the best thing that ever happened out here.” That’s how farmer Daryl Peers describes a proposal to spend as much as $1.3 billion to irrigate up to 108,000 acres in the Special Areas and Municipal District of Acadia. And while the project is far from a done deal, it’s desperately needed to rejuvenate the […] Read more
Once again, supporters of growing projects are making a difference
Reading Time: 4 minutes Just keeping track of the offers of help would likely keep the eight members of the Taber Foodgrains Project’s organizing committee busy. “There’s probably close to 100 organizations that help out in some way, shape or form,” said Jeremy Wind, the group’s chair. “We had no challenges getting people to help out. There’s always a […] Read more