United Grain Growers has signed a letter of intent to buy Pattison Bros. Agro Ltd., a farm chemical and fertilizer dealer at Lemberg, Sask.
The purchase is subject to the approval of UGG’s board of directors.
In addition to chemicals and fertilizers, Pattison Bros. Agro sells a full range of custom application services to farm customers within 40 kilometres of Lemberg.
Pattison Bros. Agro will offer UGG’s full line of services over the next few months, which includes grain contracting and the sale of Proven Seed varieties. The management and staff of Pattison Bros. Agro will join UGG and continue to operate the business.
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The sale is expected to be complete by February. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
This marks the 12th independent crop input business purchased by UGG in the past year and the third in Saskatchewan.
New hog barn opens
Saskatoon newsroom
Carlton Trail Pork Producers at Cudworth, Sask., officially opened its new hog barns on Jan. 9.
The project is a joint venture of local investors and Heartland Livestock, a part of Saskatchewan Wheat Pool.
The operation is a three-site, 2,400 farrow-to-finish pig production project employing about 15 people full time and producing about 50,000 market hogs a year.
Parkland partners up
Saskatoon newsroom
Parkland Agri Services of Didsbury, Alta., has taken on Cargill Ltd. and Agrium Inc. as partners in its crop input supply and service business.
Parkland has operations in Didsbury, Crossfield, Penhold and Delburne, all in Alberta.
The company said in a news release that the close links that will be formed with Cargill’s grain business and Agrium’s fertilizer expertise will help improve service.
New elevator for Dreyfus
Saskatoon newsroom
Louis Dreyfus is building its ninth elevator in Canada at Aberdeen, Sask.
The high-throughput facility will have a capacity of 20,000 tonnes and condominium storage of 10,000 tonnes.
The facility will be built of steel and should be ready for operation in September, a company news release said.
It will be capable of loading 52 rail cars in 10 hours.
The elevator will be located at the junction of highways 27 and 41 and is on a CN Rail line.
Three Louis Dreyfus elevators were completed in the fall of 1998, joining three that were already operating. The Aberdeen elevator and two others, at Wilkie and Glenavon, Sask., are expected to open in the late summer of 1999.
Another eye in space
Saskatoon newsroom
Canada is going to build a second Radarsat satellite system.
Unlike most remote-sensing satellites, this newest version will be able to collect images through the use of a powerful radar, which provides all-climate, all weather condition imagery of the Earth.
The images the satellite produces can be used to analyze crop development and agricultural land types, among other things.
Radarsat-2’s innovations will build on the successes of Radarsat-1, launched in 1995, and is intended to offer higher quality data images.
These images have proven effective in management of ice navigation, cartography, geological exploration, maritime surveillance, disaster relief operations, agriculture and forestry surveillance.
The Canadian Space Agency has hired MacDonald Dettwiler, of Richmond, B.C., to build and operate the $305 million satellite system. It is expected to take seven years to complete the project.
