Tracy Tjaden

For the first time since the federal agriculture department began regulating genetically altered plants nearly a decade ago, a plant variety has been suspended for containing unregistered genes. In an unprecedented move, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has frozen the registration on Limagrain’s line of Roundup-resistant canola after quality control tests by Monsanto, the company […] Read more

and Reuter News Agency news As if digging their farm out of a late-season blizzard wasn’t enough, Larry and Chris Hamblin are now preparing for the highest flood Manitoba has seen this century. It’s the worst-case scenario for residents of the province’s Red River Valley. “We use the boat in the summer so it’s always […] Read more

Farmers in Manitoba’s Red River Valley are hitting one obstacle after another in their efforts to move grain out of area before what could be Manitoba’s worst flood this century slams the region later this month. A backlog of grain shipments to the West Coast, a record April blizzard that paralyzed the region and a […] Read more

Manitoba hog farmers must embrace change to keep their heads above water as the industry reshapes itself, said an Indiana agricultural economist. “The single biggest opportunity that change is bringing is what many of us have been saying is absolutely awful: My neighbor is getting out of the hog business,” Chris Hurt told delegates to […] Read more

Saskatchewan Wheat Pool created a new company last week that it hopes will feed the growing livestock industry across the Prairies and around the world. Cangro Processors will provide the missing link in Sask Pool’s strategy to expand hog production in Western Canada, said Cangro chief operating officer Les Rankin. Operating as a subsidiary under […] Read more

In the race to claim space on the information highway, farmers are leading the pack, says an Ontario internet consultant. “The trend is on a steep upward slope,” said Helen Aitkin with the Guelph, Ont. firm Agribiz.net, an internet consulting group that specializes in keeping agriculture in the electronic loop. She describes the momentum that’s […] Read more

SOURIS, Man. – A few years ago, Kelvin Jenkins was sweeping barley out of the tattered wooden granary in the back of his family’s southwestern Manitoba farmyard. Today, Debi Jenkins straightens the country-style curtains that hang in the windows of the building and wonders if they match properly with the trendy throw carpets that cover […] Read more

Saskatchewan Wheat Pool’s move into Alberta is drawing cheers from some farmers. Others predict the pool’s new grain marketing centres are going to have a tough time in some locations where the market is already saturated. “They’re welcome to come and try it but I can’t see them lasting,” said Harry Magee, who runs a […] Read more

Francois Catellier is getting tired of hearing how the transportation backlog is slowing down exports of Canada’s major grains and oilseeds. It’s a serious problem, he agrees, but it’s better than the situation for small and medium-sized exporters of Canada’s special crops. For them, the system has ground to a halt. “In the short term […] Read more

On his own, Don Tait says he can’t do much about the hefty 30 percent import tariff Korea slaps on Canadian lentils. So the Elrose, Sask. pulse farmer doesn’t mind paying a portion of his sales to get someone else to do it. Gaining better market access for Canadian pulse crops is at the top […] Read more