Close-up file photo of an alfalfa plant in a Canadian field. (Jennifer Seeman/iStock/Getty Images)

DLF buys Corteva’s alfalfa seed business

Business to be 'fully transitioned' after 2024 season

International forage and turf seed firm DLF is stretching its reach in the alfalfa market with a deal for Corteva Agriscience’s assets in that business. The Danish firm announced Wednesday it had acquired Corteva’s global alfalfa germplasm and breeding program for an undisclosed sum, including its current commercial alfalfa varieties and their trademarks such as […] Read more

(Subjug/iStock/Getty Images)

New Zealand, Canada each claim wins in CPTPP dairy dispute

Dispute panel knocks Canada's dairy access rules

A dispute settlement panel called by New Zealand under the Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) trade pact has ruled Canada’s limits on dairy market access cramp its agreed-upon obligations. But despite the panel’s findings in New Zealand’s favour, Canada is also framing the panel’s ruling as a win — as it also generally upholds Canada’s ability to […] 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

Buhler Industries’ Versatile Nemesis 235 tractor. (Versatile-ag.com)

Buhler books bigger profit as supply chain issues pass

Company now seeking 'long-term investment partner'

The maker of Versatile tractors and Farm King equipment says the supply chain issues that have pressured its quarterly bottom line have begun to clear. Winnipeg-based Buhler Industries on Aug. 14 reported net income of $16.1 million on $67.6 million in revenue for its second quarter ending June 30, up from $1.1 million on $57.8 […] Read more


A Concord Disc Drill HD double-disc opener. (ConcordSeeding.com)

Concord seeding equipment brand to be discontinued

Products and designs to continue, but under Vaderstad banner

A brand of air seeding equipment dating back almost five decades in North Dakota and beyond is poised to disappear in the 2024 model year. Concord — a brand owned since 2021 by an arm of Swedish seeding, planting and tillage equipment firm Väderstad — will no longer be sold under the Concord name, the […] Read more

(Video screengrab from University of Guelph/OAC video via YouTube)

OAC to offer new master’s program in plant agriculture

New program would run alongside research-based degrees

Ontario Agricultural College is seeking approvals to offer a new master’s degree in plant agriculture, which would designate plant science professionals operating at a grad-school level but not on the traditional research-based path. OAC said Wednesday its proposed new “master of plant agriculture” (MPAg) program would allow recent graduates and professionals to “quickly upgrade education […] Read more


New Holland’s T4 Electric Power utility tractor. (Photo courtesy CNH)

CNH puts full-electric utility tractors on deck

New Holland T4, Farmall 75C due out early 2024

Heavy equipment firm CNH plans to get two new all-electric utility tractor models onto at least a few dealer lots in 2024 — including one it bills as a first in the tractor market. CNH’s New Holland Agriculture arm said Monday its T4 Electric Power model, “the first all-electric utility tractor with autonomous features,” will […] Read more

File photo of Diefenbaker Lake in southern Saskatchewan. (IanChrisGraham/iStock/Getty Images)

Saskatchewan ag minister to oversee water agency

Marit gets additional duties in cabinet shuffle

Saskatchewan’s minister of agriculture will take on added responsibility for the provincial Water Security Agency following a cabinet mini-shuffle. Premier Scott Moe on Tuesday named David Marit, MLA for the southwestern riding of Wood River since 2016 an minister for agriculture and Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corp. since 2018, as minister responsible for the WSA. In […] Read more


File photo of palmer amaranth — the taller yellowish plants — infesting a U.S. cotton field. (Photo courtesy ARS/USDA)

Palmer amaranth pops back up in Ontario

Weed infamous in U.S. for multiple herbicide resistances

A single plant that showed up this summer on the edge of a southwestern Ontario cornfield is cause for concern among Canadian farmers, weed specialists warn. Writing Monday in the ag ministry’s Field Crop News, Ontario provincial weed management specialist Mike Cowbrough said the plant in question, found in Wellington County, is confirmed as palmer […] Read more

File photo of a thistle plant in a wheat crop. (Dave Bedard photo)

Vietnam to call off thistle seed ban in grain imports

Move will restore regular grain trade, Cereals Canada says

Vietnam is expected to resume nearer-to-normal grain trade with exporting nations such as Canada, after it loosens a significant restriction on weed seed content. Cereals Canada, a national cereals industry group, on Friday reported that Vietnam’s agriculture ministry has released a revised quarantine pest list due to take effect Sept. 29. The new list, Cereals […] Read more