RIDGETOWN, Ont. — Canada may not lie within a “Goldilocks zone” where wheat yields can top 200 bushels per acre, but lessons may still be learned from those regions. A wheat expert from England who now runs a crop advisory company in Kentucky talked about the opportunities at the Southwest Agriculture Conference in Ridge-town in […] Read more
Stories by Jeffrey Carter
Dicamba caution issued following U.S. drift problems
RIDGETOWN, Ont. — Canadian soybean growers are being asked to spray carefully this spring in light of the dicamba drift disaster that occurred in the United States last year. While the U.S. incidents were linked to the illegal application of older formulations of the herbicide more prone to drift, there’s still room for caution, according […] Read more
Young farmers key to rural community success: NFU leader
BOTHWELL, Ont. — It’s the rural community as much as the success of agriculture that concerns the president and co-ordinator of the National Farmers Union in Ontario. That’s because their fortunes are intertwined. “We need to draw on our strength, and our strength has been the children of rural Ontario,” Emery Huszka said. “I’m not […] Read more
Dairy processor taps global, domestic markets with new products
TORONTO — Canada’s supply-management system may make it challenging to operate in Canada but that doesn’t mean companies like Saputo Inc. haven’t been able to flourish. According the president of the company’s Canadian dairy division, there have been plenty of opportunities abroad. “Sixty percent of our revenue is generated outside of Canada. Three years ago, […] Read more
Ontario distribution plan for North aims to lower food costs
DRESDEN, Ont. — Remote communities in northwestern Ontario are moving toward what is hoped to be an answer to their chronic shortage of fresh food. A new logistics plan is set to start by 2018, which is centred on a regional distribution centre to be built at the Sioux Lookout airport, according to Vicki Blanchard, […] Read more
Growers need to know customers
GUELPH, Ont. — Farmers need to enter the modern era of marketing and focus on what their customers are asking for, said a marketing expert with the agricultural economics department at Purdue University. The time when a producer or manufacturer could produce a product and concentrate on taking orders disappeared with the Second World War, […] Read more
Canadians overeat, waste food
Canadians could eat better. For most, it’s a matter of not making the right nutritional choices. For some, it’s about lacking the means to do so. Canada’s 2016 Food Report Card was unveiled at the Food and Drink Summit in Toronto Nov. 28, where the associate director of the Conference Board of Canada touched on […] Read more
Ontario greenhouses light up
HARROW, Ont. — Ontario’s greenhouses are lighting up. There are 100 acres of tomatoes and cucumbers in the province with supplemental lighting, and researchers are now turning their attention to peppers. “We’ve done some preliminary work on peppers, and last year the results were promising, and so we’ve expanded our research,” said Shalin Khosla, the […] Read more
Improved diet would lower health costs
TORONTO — A guaranteed basic income for all Canadians could reduce hunger and food insecurity, but it could also prove to be an expensive fix. “Basic income sounds like a silver bullet, but I don’t think it’s a silver bullet for poverty,” Craig Alexander, chief economist with the Conference Board of Canada, said Nov. 28 […] Read more
Seed sector transformation in the works
GUELPH, Ont. — Canada’s seed industry appears poised for major change. The Canadian Seed Growers Association is moving forward with an effort to implement a new strategic plan in the coming year. Linked to that is an industry-wide initiative called the Seed Synergy program. “The primary purpose is to provide a tool to align what […] Read more
