A "distribution allowance" that gave Alberta’s farmers a six-cent-per-litre break on diesel fuel for farm use is a casualty of Thursday’s provincial budget, effective immediately. Finance Minister Doug Horner’s 2013-14 budget eliminates the farm fuel distribution allowance portion of the province’s Farm Fuel Benefit Program, ending a benefit which cost the province an estimated $32.5 […] Read more
Alta. farms’ diesel discount cancelled in budget
HayEast’s government funding expires
The HayEast drive to get Prairie hay to livestock producers in parched regions of Ontario and Quebec is expected to continue past the expiry of its government funding. "Government funds have expired, but organizers are still assessing how many more farmers we can continue to help before the private donations run out," Mark Wales, president […] Read more
Portable electric fence trailer simplifies managed grazing
Self-contained Electric fence trailer puts energizer, solar panel, posts and wire all in one portable unit
Reading Time: 2 minutes Want to try managed grazing techniques to boost grass productivity, but don’t want to spend a lot of time and money driving posts and stringing wires? Norm Ward, a custom grazer and inventor from Granum, Alta., has come up with a self-contained, portable electric fencing system that makes dividing up quarter section-sized pastures fast and […] Read moreNational grains biosecurity standard launched
A new voluntary standard for biosecurity on Canada’s grain- and oilseed-producing farms is expected to help growers build or improve on their existing farmgate-level systems at any scale. "While some pieces of this may already be common practice, I think many producers will pick up some new tips as well to help prevent the spread […] Read more
Mississippi River rock removal project completed
Barge shipping on the middle Mississippi River returned to normal on Thursday for the first time since December as rain and snowmelt revived the drought-hit waterway and government engineers completed a two-month riverbed rock removal project. The worst U.S. drought in a half century sapped the major shipping artery and fuelled concerns that barge shipments […] Read more
Clubroot found in Manitoba soils
Testing has confirmed levels of clubroot capable of producing disease in two soil samples collected from Manitoba canola fields last year, provincial officials say. "It is significant in that we can no longer consider ourselves free of clubroot in Manitoba," said Holly Derksen, a plant pathologist with Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives’ soils and […] Read more
Canada to end biofuel subsidy in 2017, report says
The Canadian government plans to end its subsidy for production of biofuels when its current program ends in 2017, a newspaper reported on Saturday. The Globe and Mail quoted a letter from Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver to the biofuels industry on Thursday explaining that Ottawa needed to cut spending to tame its deficit. Oliver […] Read more
Versatile expands into toyland
Winnipeg tractor maker Versatile has expanded its product line into the smallest of small-scale equipment. The company on Thursday announced a new line of scale-model toys developed by Tokyo toy manufacturer Tomy and Iowa-based Ertl, which already makes licensed die-cast scale models of John Deere, Case IH and New Holland farm equipment. Come April, the […] Read more
U.S. ethanol groups decry EU tariff as ‘blatant protectionism’
Two U.S. biofuel trade groups on Tuesday lambasted a European Union decision to impose a tariff on U.S.-made ethanol as a protectionist move and said they would challenge the tariff "in every way possible." The 9.5 per cent tariff on imports of U.S. ethanol was approved on Monday by the Council of the European Union. […] Read more
Iogen to shed processing enzyme business
Ottawa biotech firm Iogen Corp. plans to tighten its focus on cellulosic ethanol by shedding its other business, making and selling enzymes for brewers, grain processors, feed millers and other industries. Danish industrial enzyme maker Novozymes plans to buy Iogen’s industrial enzyme business, Iogen Bio-Products, for $67.5 million plus up to $12.5 million in "earn-out" […] Read more
