Canadian farmers are reeling from China's decision to impose hefty duties on their canola seed, after the surprise move spooked grain buyers into halting purchases and stoked worries there will be little demand for crop deliveries this autumn.
Ed White
Stories by Ed White
Nutrien expects more fertilizer use by farmers despite low crop prices
Nutrien expects increased fertilizer use by North American farmers this fall and a good global potash market in 2026 despite some crop prices at multi-year lows.
Dairy supply management could sour Canada-US trade talks
Recent legislation may not keep negotiators from discussing supply management, experts say
Supply-managed Canadian dairy could be a sticking point in trade negotiations with the U.S.
Tariffs on canola seen supercharging Canadian farmers’ shift to spring wheat
U.S. Great Plains farmers skipping the cereal in favour of more profitable crops
The prospect of Chinese and U.S. tariffs on canola have prompted Western Canadian farmers to seed more wheat.
What made canola so strong?
Hybridization and an extensive crop plot research across Western Canada increased the crop's resiliency
Like Cinderella, canola could be beautiful and impressive, but if the weather clock struck midnight, it would end up in rags, trapped in a pumpkin surrounded by lizards and rats. That was the canola crops of the 1980s and 1990s, which were generally viewed as the most fragile and undependable crops in farmers’ fields, able […] Read more
Sustainability incentive for canola growers
At the Ag In Motion farm show, companies describe premiums available to farmers
Canola growers have choices when it comes to trying to get a premium for proving they farm sustainably. Most of the major seed providers are putting together programs that reward farmers for operating in a manner that allows food companies and others to plausibly claim that their crops don’t hurt the planet. Other stories in […] Read more
Durum variety designed for higher food fibre
Corteva’s new Trusource wheat is designed to be good for the gut, but farmers won’t have trouble stomaching another one of its virtues. It’s designed to be a premium product for a specialty market. “When there’s consumer demand and we can fulfil it, it creates value for the farmer,” said Loralee Orr of Corteva Agriscience, […] Read more
Private grain inspection finds success on the Prairies
SGS Canada had its critics when it set out to replace grain commission inspections, but the business model worked
Twenty-five years ago, Fraser Gilbert saw an opportunity nobody else did. Lots of people thought he was dead wrong when the former top grain quality man from the Canadian Grain Commission decided to plunge into the CGC’s traditional role of inland grain inspections and offer a private sector alternative. Today, many now expect that alternative […] Read more
Social media proves good way to explain agriculture
This is the final instalment in a series of stories that Ed White filed this summer about the different approaches that can be taken when advocating for agriculture. Have fun with it. That seems to be the attitude that works with agriculture-themed social media, or at least that’s the feeling that pours out of accounts […] Read more
Company sets out to assist Nigerian farmers
He was sitting in the sun amid the rich farmland of central Saskatchewan, but Peter Gorski’s mind was on the sizzling potential that could be seized by West African farmers. “It’s amazingly rich,” said Gorski, a senior trader with Broadgrain Commodities, after returning from weeks in Nigeria where he visited his company’s collaborative project with […] Read more
