A wholesale buying network set up by and for independent Prairie crop input retailers, against a rising tide of industry consolidation, is now growing through consolidation. The Prairie retailers, who in 2010 set up Grow Community of Independents to collectively build up their retail and agronomic offerings, are now independent members of a new entity, […] Read more
Mergers spawn expanded supply network for input dealers
Canada Day: A farm wife’s Centennial project becomes her Canada 150 quilt
A Saskatchewan farm wife and avid quilter’s plan to mark Canada’s centennial in her own way took an unusual turn through time. Helen Huls — who, with her late husband Bernard, had operated a mixed farm at Muenster, Sask. — died June 6 at age 84, having just recently finished what daughter Michelle Crone described […] Read more
Top Canadian mushroom grower buys westward expansion
Canada’s biggest producer of mushrooms has expanded its reach into Western Canada with the purchase of one of the region’s biggest producers. Highline Produce announced Thursday it has bought Langley, B.C.-based organic mushroom producer All Seasons Mushrooms. According to Irish tropical fruit marketing giant Fyffes, which has owned Highline since April, it will pay $59.1 […] Read more
EU crop chem firm takes stake in Engage Agro
A Belgian crop protection firm may bring some of its products to Canada’s vegetable, vine and corn markets as it moves to take a minority stake in Canadian crop chemical distributor Engage Agro. Belchim Crop Protection announced last week it will take a “significant” but undisclosed minority stake in Guelph-based Engage Agro for an undisclosed […] Read more
Ottawa moves to extend expanded rail interswitching
Prairie crop growers hoping that changes in federal rail freight rules will continue past their expiration date are about to get their wish. Transport Minister Marc Garneau and Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay on Friday announced they would bring forward a resolution in Parliament to extend provisions of the previous government’s Bill C-30, the Fair Rail […] Read more
A+W ups ante on layer hen housing
Having already pledged to source eggs from hens in enriched housing and raised without use of antibiotics, burger chain A+W now plans to get all its eggs from hens in open housing. The Vancouver-based income fund said Wednesday that despite having “no open-barn housing options available” today that meet its antibiotic-free requirement, it plans to […] Read more
Stacked LL/RR canola off the menu for 2016
The first canola hybrid to stack Genuity Roundup Ready and LibertyLink traits in one seed won’t be on the market for this growing season. Just weeks after its Jan. 22 announcement of a limited launch for InVigor Choice LR250 for the 2016 season, Bayer CropScience Canada now says concerns over seed quality and export market access have […] Read more
Major investment to build Farmers Edge’s data power
Canadian precision agronomy and farm data management firm Farmers Edge plans to keep taking its services to previously underserved acres around the world, with a major cash infusion from a group of its backers. Japanese commodities trading and investment firm Mitsui, Toronto commercial real estate company Osmington and the Green Growth Fund operated by investment […] Read more
Feds scrap ‘conditional’ pesticide approvals
Federal crop chemical regulators this summer will stop granting “conditional” registrations for new pesticides — a practice already largely on the way out, they note. Health Canada, which oversees the federal Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA), said Tuesday it plans to stop granting new conditional registrations starting June 1, describing the move as an “important […] Read more
U.S. Congress repeals COOL on beef, pork
The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives have both approved a repeal of the government’s six-year old mandatory country-of-origin labelling (COOL) laws on beef and pork. Tucked into an omnibus appropriations bill put before Congress Friday, the repeal shuts the door on a major irritant in North American trade relations and is expected to curb […] Read more
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