Foreign control in the oil and gas extraction sector is up more than 15 per cent since 2012.  Photo: File

Foreign control in Canadian ag sector still relatively low

CNS Canada – The percentage of foreign control, as a percentage of total assets, in the Canadian agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting sector was 1.6 per cent in 2016, according to data recently released by Statistics Canada. While that’s up from 1.1 per cent in 2012, it compares with foreign control in all industries (excluding […] Read more



Bunge wrongly bet that soybean prices would rise as U.S.-China trade tensions eased.

Bunge posts surprise loss on trade-related soy hedges

Chicago | Reuters – Global grains merchant Bunge Ltd reported a surprise quarterly loss on Wednesday as its agribusiness unit took a $125 million hit from soybean hedges tied to the trade dispute between the United States and China. Shares of the White Plains, New York-based company fell 2.9 percent in early trading to $67.10 […] Read more


The Archer Daniels Midland Co. (ADM) logo is displayed on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., May 3, 2018.
 Photo: REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

ADM earnings double, helped by U.S.-China trade row

Chicago | Reuters – Archer Daniels Midland Co’s net profits doubled in the second quarter and beat Wall Street estimates, after a drought in Argentina and the U.S.-China trade spat boosted the U.S. grain merchant’s trading and oilseed processing businesses. Shares were up 1 percent at $47.86 after touching a three-year high on the New […] Read more

Growing consumer demand for micro-roasted specialty coffees prompted Teri Heck and her family to open Profound Coffee in Cremona.

Wake up and smell the micro-roasted coffee

Alberta village is on the cutting edge of the ‘third wave’ coffee movement thanks to Profound Coffee

Reading Time: 4 minutes Teri Heck is on a mission to rid the world of bad coffee. “I grew up on the farm where we had terrible water and even worse coffee,” said the owner of Profound Coffee, a micro-roaster in Cremona. “Life is just too short to drink bad coffee.” Heck was always a double-double girl in the […] Read more


Wheat farmer checking his crop.

New cropping business tools available

Reading Time: < 1 minute The 2018 versions of Cropping Alternatives and the new Crop Budget Calculator tool are now available. They allow producers to project costs, margins, and break-even yields for potential crops. Cropping Alternatives “forecasts margins based on benchmark yields, current cost of production, expected revenues, and costs by soil zone. With this information producers can get an […] Read more

What was the real bottom line on your farm in 2017?

What was the real bottom line on your farm in 2017?

Cash accounting can save you taxes, but it doesn’t give you a true picture of profitability

Reading Time: 2 minutes Was your farm profitable in 2017? Now is the time to find out by converting cash statements to accrual income and expenses statements, says a provincial farm financial specialist. “The majority of farms still report their incomes and expenses on a cash basis via their annual income tax returns with the goal of avoiding or […] Read more


Online tools for reducing worker turnover

Online tools for reducing worker turnover

Calculator estimates costs of replacing employees while benchmarking tool allows for comparisons by sector or province

Reading Time: < 1 minute Did you know that the cost of replacing a single worker can be as much as 150 per cent of their annual salary? Do you know what your turnover costs are? ‘Turnover’ is the rate at which workers leave and are replaced on your farm, something that can have a major impact on productivity and […] Read more

Two agriculture and food initiatives are contenders for Ottawa’s billion-dollar plan to kick-start the nation’s new economy — but will it pick Big Data or plant-based proteins?

Superclusters: Creating a silicon valley for agriculture and food

Two proposals from Western Canada are vying for backing in Ottawa’s 
bid to put Canada at the front of the new economy

Reading Time: 6 minutes So what would you rather have — new lucrative ‘plant protein’ markets or a way to turn Big Data into bigger profits? Those are the goals of the two agriculture and agri-food proposals vying for a slice of $950 million of federal cash that Ottawa will spend on ‘superclusters’ — business-led collaborations that aim to […] Read more