A Nova Scotia trucking firm specializing in fruit and other refrigerated produce has been bought up by an expansion-minded neighbour. Clarke Road Transport, the full-load trucking arm of Halifax investment firm Clarke Inc., announced Thursday it had bought Select Transport Inc. of Windsor, N.S. from J.W. Mason and Sons for an undisclosed sum. Mason’s, a […] Read more
Clarke buys N.S. produce trucking business
Ontario names new deputy ag minister
The Ontario civil servant soon to become the province’s top bureaucrat for agriculture is already running a review of a program that contracts farmers and others to help feed the hydro grid. Fareed Amin will replace John Burke as Ontario’s deputy minister for agriculture, food and rural affairs starting Dec. 12, the province said Wednesday. […] Read more
Trackage deal extends CP’s reach in Iowa
Customers shipping grains by rail with Canadian Pacific may now cross northeastern Iowa on a family-owned shortline serving two corn ethanol facilities. CP on Thursday announced a trackage rights agreement with Iowa Northern Railway (IANR), a Cedar Rapids-based company whose lines connect Cedar Rapids with Cedar Falls and Mason City. Its lines outside Mason City […] Read more
S. Sask. roads not cold enough for heavy trucks
Truckers using secondary highways in a "large portion" of southern Saskatchewan won’t be allowed to load up to full winter weights yet. The province is usually able to open its applicable highways to heavier winter weights any day after Nov. 16 and no later than Dec. 1. However, the province said Wednesday it will not […] Read more
Canada chops tariffs for apple juice concentrate
The import duties Canadian food processors pay to get apple juice concentrate are to be axed by the federal government. Finance Minister Jim Flaherty on Sunday announced shipments of apple juice concentrate from foreign suppliers are on a list of 70 items for which the tariffs will now be eliminated, to the benefit of Canadian […] Read more
CWB directors fire parting shot over contingency fund
In what they described as likely meeting for the "last time before being fired," the Canadian Wheat Board is demanding Ottawa compensate Prairie farmers for assets it’s claimed they’re about to lose. The CWB’s board, which today consists of eight farmer-elected directors, five federal appointees and two vacancies, passed a resolution Thursday that farmers "must […] Read more
N.Y. rules could halt St. Lawrence traffic: Feds
Grain and other freight hauled on the St. Lawrence Seaway could be forced to a halt starting in 2013 under New York state’s planned standards for treatment of ships’ ballast water, the federal government says. Ballast water is pumped onboard vessels to increase draught, change trim, regulate stability or maintain stress loads within acceptable limits. […] Read more
We’re at the world’s biggest ag machinery show
Grainews’ machinery editor Scott Garvey is blogging this week from the largest exhibition of new farm machinery on the planet. Reporting from AgriTechnica at Hanover in northern Germany, Garvey notes that while the show’s 2,700 exhibitors from 48 countries are displaying their newest and best iron, manufacturers at this show also offer "a glimpse of […] Read more
Sask. to allow winter weights for trucks Dec. 1
Saskatchewan’s highways department will hold off as long as possible on allowing heavier truck weights to travel the province’s secondary highways. The province can open applicable highways to heavier winter weights starting any day between Nov. 16 and Dec. 1, but due to the mild fall, the roads’ structures aren’t yet cold enough to allow […] Read more
ADM confirms biodiesel plant for Lloydminster
Revised, Nov. 15 — Agrifood giant Archer Daniels Midland has stopped studying and started moving on plans for a biodiesel production plant next door to its canola crushing plant at Lloydminster, Alta. ADM on Monday confirmed it will build a 265 million-litre capacity plant at the Alberta/Saskatchewan border city, having studied the idea since April […] Read more
