Dave Bedard Archives | Alberta Farmer Express

ILTA Grain security payout to be CGC’s biggest ever

By Dave Bedard January 7, 2020

An insurance policy set up for demised Prairie pulse exporter ILTA Grain will pay, in full, what’s owed to over 200 growers who supplied the company, according to the Canadian Grain Commission. The CGC announced Monday that 222 eligible unpaid growers will receive a total of $11.146 million covered by the security ILTA posted before […] Read more

Beef Cattle, Hogs, Livestock

Amended CUSMA pact includes anti-COOL clause

By Dave Bedard January 3, 2020

The new Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA), a free trade deal set to replace NAFTA, includes language meant to block any future bids at a trade-disrupting country-of-origin labeling (COOL) law. The new clause would, in theory, checkmate a move made last summer by some Democrat members of the U.S. House of Representatives to have a new North […] Read more

Crops

Antitrust regulators step in on Dreyfus elevator sale

By Dave Bedard December 20, 2019

The federal Competition Bureau says a ‘rivalry’ between a pair of Prairie grain elevators would be lost to farmers if one is sold to the other’s owner. The bureau announced Friday it had filed an application Thursday with the federal Competition Tribunal, seeking an order that grain handler Parrish and Heimbecker sell either its elevator […] Read more

Livestock, Machinery & Shop, Weather

New livestock transport rules include grace period for all sectors

By Dave Bedard December 20, 2019

Enforcement of new federal rules for livestock transport, due to take effect Feb. 20, will focus on handler education and awareness for the first two years — and across all affected livestock species, not just cattle. The now-amended Humane Transportation of Animals regulations are meant to focus on the time frames during which animals are […] Read more

Hogs, Livestock

F. Menard’s pork industry assets cleared for sale

By Dave Bedard November 28, 2019

Antitrust regulators have cleared the path for La Coop federee to take up a significantly larger, vertically integrated share of its home province’s pork packing, feed milling and hog production sectors. The agribusiness co-operative announced Thursday its Olymel and Sollio Agriculture arms have “received the green light” from the federal Competition Bureau to buy the […] Read more

Crops

Nutrien potash mine idled despite rail strike’s end

By Dave Bedard November 27, 2019

Plans by the world’s largest ag inputs provider to temporarily idle its biggest potash mine in view of the Canadian National Railway strike will proceed, even as CN goes back to work. Saskatoon-based Nutrien announced Monday it “will be forced to curtail production” at its Rocanville, Sask. mine due to the CN rail strike. The […] Read more

Crops, Machinery & Shop, Markets

Grain groups seek ‘essential service’ status for rail

By Dave Bedard November 26, 2019

With Canadian National Railway’s conductors and yard workers headed back to work, several Canadian grain groups now want to head off any future job action in the rail sector. CN and the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference announced separately Tuesday they had reached a tentative agreement ending an eight-day strike by over 3,000 unionized staff. The […] Read more

Crops, Oats

Paterson stakes Manitoba site for oat processing plant

By Dave Bedard October 3, 2019

Up to a quarter million tonnes of oats per year could find a new end use as a Winnipeg agrifood company sets up a new oat processing plant near its home base. Privately-held Paterson GlobalFoods (PGF) announced Thursday it will start construction “immediately” on the new plant, on part of its 600-acre site next to […] Read more

General

Federal minister for rural affairs among Tory pledges

By Dave Bedard October 1, 2019

The federal Conservatives’ pre-election pledges for Canada’s rural communities include a plan to appoint a federal minister for rural affairs. Tory leader Andrew Scheer included that promise Sept. 7 in announcing a list of “specific measures he will take as prime minister to help rural communities across the country,” in the lead-up to a federal […] Read more

Beef Cattle, Livestock

Major veal processor launches new brand, non-GMO label

By Dave Bedard September 30, 2019

Quebec veal, lamb and beef processor Delimax-Montpak is set to launch a new consumer brand across Canada featuring what it bills as the only GMO-free milk-fed veal on the market. The company said Tuesday it expected to have the new brand — Fontaine Family, named for the company’s founding family — available via “most major […] Read more

Agropur pulls milk over sanitizer residue concerns

Younger aggies sought for new Canada-wide council

Prairie cash wheat: Bids generally higher

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