The George Morris Centre’s planned Value Chain Management Centre will get some value added through a $1 million federal contribution. The funding was announced Friday in Guelph, where the agriculture think-tank is based. The VCMC, to be located at the centre, is expected to raise awareness and demonstrate the financial and competitive benefits from value […] Read more
Feds back GMC value chain centre
Sask. boosts crops’ insured prices for 2008
Among new programs such as coverage for gopher damage, Saskatchewan Crop Insurance will also “substantially” raise its insured prices for 2008, by almost 50 per cent per acre on average. “Our dollar coverage is increasing from a provincial average of $86 per acre in 2007 to $128 per acre in 2008,” provincial Agriculture Minister Bob […] Read more
Ont. cattlemen name new chief
The Ontario Cattlemen’s Association has picked Gord Hardy, a Middlesex County feedlot operator, as its new president. Hardy, an OCA director for southern Ontario since 2000 and most recently the beef producer group’s vice-president, replaces Elgin County cow-calf operator Ian McKillop, who stepped down from the president’s chair. Hardy and his family also grow corn, […] Read more
Express SG picks up more pre-seed burnoffs
DuPont Canada now has regulators’ approval for Prairie farmers to use its Group 2 broadleaf herbicide Express SG, tank-mixed with glyphosate, for burnoff before seeding oats, winter wheat or canaryseed. Express SG, a soluble granule form of tribenuron methyl, is marketed as a booster for glyphosate products, such as Monsanto’s Roundup and Syngenta’s Touchdown iQ, […] Read more
Man. research to boost forage feeding funded
Cattle producers looking to cut their reliance on increasingly expensive feed grains are expected to benefit from a $5.2 million deal for research in Manitoba on grass and forage feeding. The federal and provincial governments and the Manitoba Cattle Producers Association announced the agreement Friday at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Brandon Research Centre. The federal […] Read more
Cost-cutting boosts Maple Leaf’s 2007 ledger
Cutting costs and raising prices allowed Maple Leaf Foods to significantly boost its annual net income in 2007, the company reported Thursday. The Toronto-based company, one of Canada’s main food processing firms, posted net earnings of $207.1 million on sales of $5.21 billion in 2007, up from $4.5 million on $5.32 billion in 2006. However, […] Read more
Opposition politicians rally around single desk
Manitoba’s federal opposition politicians have lined up against what they call the Conservative government’s “ill-advised rush to fundamentally transform the grain sector.” Winnipeg Liberal MPs Anita Neville and Raymond Simard and NDP MPs Pat Martin and Judy Wasylycia-Leis appeared Thursday at a press conference with provincial Agriculture Minister Rosann Wowchuk, Canadian Wheat Board farmer-director Bill […] Read more
Man. offers hog loans, cattle loan deferrals
Manitoba’s provincial government will offer beleaguered hog producers $60 million in new loans and a loan-deferral program for the province’s cattle producers. The province, through its Manitoba Agricultural Services Corporation (MASC), will provide the hog loans at “attractive” interest rates to help producers facing “significant cash flow challenges,” the Manitoba government said in a release […] Read more
Ont. drafts rules for Greenbelt expansion proposals
The Ontario government wants residents’ thoughts on how it should consider requests to expand the boundaries of the province’s Greenbelt and further protect countryside. The province said Thursday it’s developed draft criteria that, once finalized, would be used to consider requests from regional, county and single-tier governments to expand the Greenbelt’s boundaries. “We want to […] Read more
Farm products council gets new vice-chair
Valcartier, Que. turkey farmer Brent Montgomery has been appointed the new vice-chairperson of the national council supervising supply management for poultry and eggs. Federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz announced Montgomery’s appointment to the National Farm Products Council on Wednesday, for a term running to April 29, 2011. Montgomery, the mayor of the Saint-Gabriel-de-Valcartier municipality, has […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
