A three-day drive to collect Saskatchewan farmers’ obsolete pesticides will run Oct. 23 to 25, CropLife Canada announced Wednesday. Farmers and turf growers can dispose of obsolete farm herbicides, fungicides, insecticides and rodenticides free of charge at one of 45 participating retailers during those three days, the chemical industry trade association said in a release. […] Read more
Collection set for Sask. farmers’ old chemicals
Farmers await “actual deliverables” from Throne Speech
Farm groups say they’re looking forward to movement on some or all of the farming-related points in last night’s federal Speech from the Throne, but also wonder about the government’s plans on issues left unmentioned. The speech, delivered Tuesday evening by Governor General Michaelle Jean on the Tory government’s behalf, included brief mentions of several […] Read more
P.E.I. potato field quarantined: CBC
Canadian Food Inspection Agency staff have quarantined a field near Kensington on Prince Edward Island, pending tests for what’s suspected to be potato wart, CBC News reported Tuesday. A single potato was pulled from the field with what appeared to be potato wart, an agency spokesman told CBC, adding that the field is near another […] Read more
Imported fertilizer crosses “Arctic Bridge”
In what’s being described as a milestone for Manitoba’s Hudson Bay port at Churchill, the Kapitan Sviridov, a Russian vessel, arrived today bearing cheaper fertilizer for Prairie farmers. The arrival of the Murmansk Shipping Co. vessel represents the first shipment under the “Arctic Bridge” concept that’s proposed to link Russian and Canadian Prairie markets, said […] Read more
Alta. to offset farmers’ costs with $165M
Alberta will soon launch a provincial farm recovery plan with $165 million in “transitional” payments to help offset its farmers’ rising feed, fuel and fertilizer costs. Agriculture Minister George Groeneveld announced in a release today that the province will start delivery of the farm recovery plan (AFRP) for eligible farmers in early November, to be […] Read more
Market potential limited for “local food”: report
Demand for “local food” is on the rise but can’t expand nearly as far some of its promoters claim it will, according to a report released today by the George Morris Centre. Martin Gooch, a research associate at the Guelph-based agricultural think tank, writes that “the extent to which some proponents have predicted the size […] Read more
Later-seeded Alta. crops wait for dry weather
Cool, wet weather has combined with late-seeded crops to cause “major” harvest delays in parts of Alberta, particularly the west-central, northwest and Peace River regions, the province reported Tuesday. Alberta Agriculture and Food said in its crop report for the period ending Oct. 11 that the crop overall was estimated to be 85 per cent […] Read more
Rain stalls last of Sask. harvest
The last four per cent of Saskatchewan’s crops had to wait on the field for a few days due to showers, the province reported Monday. In the last of Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food’s weekly crop reports, the harvest is 96 per cent complete, up from 94 per cent a week earlier and the five-year average […] Read more
Weather holds back last of Man. harvest
Wet and cool conditions last week have delayed what little is generally left of Manitoba’s 2007 harvest campaign, the province reported Monday. In the last of its weekly crop reports for the season, Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives (MAFRI) reported that weather hasn’t co-operated with farmers on a few isolated flax and canola fields […] Read more
Syngenta rolls out concentrated glyphosate
Syngenta Crop Protection has released Touchdown Total, a higher-concentration version of its Touchdown iQ glyphosate product. Compared to Touchdown iQ, which is concentrated at 360 grams per litre acid equivalent of glyphosate, Touchdown Total is formulated at 500 grams per litre, the company said in a release Monday. “This means less product handling is required […] Read more
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