Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne’s post-election cabinet shuffle puts the province’s agriculture and food ministry and rural affairs ministry back under one minister. Wynne on Tuesday announced Jeff Leal, the MPP for Peterborough and the province’s minister of rural affairs since February last year, as the new minister of agriculture, food and rural affairs in what’s now […] Read more
Ont. cabinet shuffle reunites farm, rural affairs files
CWB makes bid for independent SW Sask. grain handler
Shareholders in southwestern Saskatchewan’s Great Sandhills Terminal are expected to meet this summer to consider a $17.4 million offer from the grain firm formerly known as the Canadian Wheat Board. CWB on Monday announced an all-cash $581.98 per share offer for all shares in the independent firm, which operates an high-throughput inland grain terminal on […] Read more
Prairie seed grower and inventor Harvey Gjesdal, 92
Funeral services will be held Wednesday at Birch Hills, Sask. for farm equipment inventor, seed grower and long-time Grainews columnist Harvey Gjesdal. Gjesdal, who died Friday at Birch Hills at age 92, was prominent for decades among Prairie farmers, in part for patents on equipment still in widespread use today, including the Gjesdal “Five-in-One” rotary […] Read more
Wheat commission offering ag scholarships
Reading Time: < 1 minute The Alberta Wheat Commission is offering two $1,000 scholarships for students entering the agriculture program at the universities of Alberta and Lethbridge. “These scholarships will encourage talented young students to start a career in agriculture and ensure continued success of Alberta’s wheat industry,” says commission chair Kent Erickson. The undergraduate scholarships will be awarded starting […] Read more
Ag work mostly outside feds’ foreign worker plan overhaul
Canadian farms importing temporary workers won’t be subject to most of the federal government’s moves to rein in businesses’ use of temporary foreign workers. Employment Minister Jason Kenney and Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander on Friday announced what they billed as a “comprehensive overhaul” of the federal Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP). Kenney in […] Read more
Farm think-tank tapped out as George Morris Centre folds
Facing “challenging” financial straits, one of Canada’s best-known agriculture and agri-food research organizations has announced plans to close later this year. The board of the George Morris Centre on Thursday announced it plans to dissolve the Guelph-based organization, and transfer its net assets back to the University of Guelph’s Ontario Agricultural College (OAC). The centre […] Read more
China trade trip seen clearing paths for beef, fruit, hay
A Canadian trade mission to China is reported to be paying dividends including a formal agreement through which China will move toward accepting Canadian bone-in beef. That agreement, announced Tuesday, calls for China to work with Canadian officials to provide access for Canadian bone-in beef derived from animals less than 30 months of age (UTMs) […] Read more
Funding for research projects
Reading Time: < 1 minute The Alberta Wheat Commission (AWC) and its partners in the Agriculture Funding Consortium are investing $1.5 million in 10 agronomic and breeding/genetic research projects. Five are focused on genetics, four on agronomic management, and one on both agronomy and genetics. “Research is a top priority for the commission with 40 per cent of AWC producer […] Read more
Southern Alta. readies ‘de-watering’ equipment
Alberta’s provincial agriculture department is distributing pumps to communities in the province’s south to support “de-watering efforts” as waterways rise under continued rainfall pressure. Municipalities and response agencies have reported to the province that the impact to date from heavy rainfall in the region is “significantly lower” than last year’s flooding. However, a number of […] Read more
S. Alberta watching waterways, threat seen less severe than 2013
Faced with “significant” rainfall, parts of southern Alberta and downstream jurisdictions have again been bracing for late-spring flooding. The province said Wednesday it’s moving “pre-emptively” to co-ordinate responders and has activated its 24-hour provincial emergency operations centre. “Thankfully, the flood threat we are seeing this year is not as severe or widespread as what we […] Read more
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