Chicago | Reuters — U.S. soybean futures fell on Wednesday for a fourth straight session on long liquidation and profit-taking ahead of a key government crop report and market jitters over next week’s presidential election, analysts said. Corn also declined, with the December contract nearing a three-week low. Wheat firmed on short-covering as investors headed […] Read more
U.S. grains: Soy, corn sag ahead of USDA report, election
Saskatchewan ag minister, ag critic return in election
Saskatchewan’s agriculture minister and opposition ag critic both easily held their ridings Monday night as the governing Saskatchewan Party completed its electoral hat trick. By about 1 a.m. Tuesday, Premier Brad Wall’s Saskatchewan Party had won 51 of 61 ridings, for a third straight majority mandate coming out of Monday’s general election. The opposition New […] Read more
Bob Lowe new chair of Alberta Beef Producers
Reading Time: < 1 minute Bob Lowe is the new chair of Alberta Beef Producers. The Nanton producer was elected at the organization’s meeting earlier this month. The other executive board members are vice-chair Roland Cailliau (Valleyview), finance chair Charlie Christie (Trochu), and past chair Greg Bowie (Ponoka). The other members on the 2016 board of directors are Howard Bekkering […] Read more
Lawrence MacAulay sworn in as Canada’s new agriculture minister
Ottawa/Manitoba Co-operator – Only hours after being sworn in by Governor General David Johnston and mere minutes after leaving his first cabinet meeting, Canada’s newly minted Minister of Agriculture paused to speak with reporters gathered on Parliament Hill Nov. 3. “I’m certainly pleased,” said Lawrence MacAulay. “Being a dairy farmer and a seed potato farmer […] Read more
Most of farm file’s handlers to return to Commons
Most federal parliamentarians with experience in the agriculture and agri-food portfolio will be back in the House of Commons under a new majority Liberal government. As of Tuesday morning, prime minister-elect Justin Trudeau’s Liberals were elected or leading in 184 of 338 seats, for a decisive majority following Monday’s federal election. Stephen Harper’s Conservatives return […] Read more
Election shifts attention to trade deal as race narrows
Ottawa | Reuters –– Trailing in second place with two weeks left before Canada’s election, Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced a new trade deal Monday that largely protects the key agricultural voting bloc, putting pressure on opponents who had hoped to have more to attack. Harper touted the Trans-Pacific Partnership as a good deal […] Read more
NDP would not feel bound by Pacific trade deal
Ottawa | Reuters — Canada’s main opposition party said Friday that if it won an Oct. 19 election, it would not feel bound by the terms of a major Pacific trade deal the ruling Conservatives are negotiating in the United States. The New Democrats, currently trailing third in the polls, said in a letter to […] Read more
Canada to pay farmers for any losses under TPP deal, Ritz says
Reuters — Canadian farmers will receive government compensation for any losses resulting from a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal, the country’s agriculture minister said Wednesday in a discussion about the nation’s protected farm sectors. The U.S., New Zealand and Australia want Canada to start dismantling a system of supply and import controls over dairy, poultry […] Read more
Farmers, upset over TPP talks, take cows to Parliament
Ottawa | Reuters — Unhappy Canadian dairy farmers parked dozens of tractors in central Ottawa and walked their cows down the main street opposite Parliament on Tuesday to protest trade talks they said could cripple them. Canada is one of 12 Pacific Rim countries trying to nail down a trade deal in Atlanta this week. […] Read more
Who are Oneil Carlier and Rick Strankman?
Reading Time: 2 minutes They come from opposite ends of the political spectrum, but Oneil Carlier and Rick Strankman share some common ground. For starters, both know farming in dry country. Strankman’s operation is near Altario (roughly halfway between Medicine Hat and Lloydminster) while Carlier grew up on a cattle and grain operation in Val Marie, Sask., 120 kilometres […] Read more
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