Facility upgrade
The Crop Diversification Centre in Brooks, Alta., is getting an upgrade to facilitate crop research and contribute to the growth of Alberta’s greenhouse industry.
The upgrade will include a new 1,100 sq. metre research greenhouse, a 3,900 sq. metre production greenhouse and a 750 sq. metre support building.
Construction is underway and should be complete by late 2009.
The Alberta government will contribute $165 million to the project.
The new facilities will provide crop scientists with the space, equipment and flexibility they need to conduct important crop research and to simulate the production of crops in commercial-style greenhouses.
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Some of the existing greenhouses at the centre are 40 years old and in need of replacement.
The new facilities will have four times more greenhouse space and will feature new technologies like high-transmission greenhouse coverings and more efficient growing systems.
The greenhouse industry in Alberta has tripled in size over the past 25 years.
Offer a grain sample
Prairie producers are urged to take part in the Canadian Grain Commission’s annual harvest sample program.
Participation in the program helps the CGC determine the harvest’s overall quality and supports research projects that benefit the Canadian grain industry.
This year, for example, the CGC, Agriculture Canada and the United States Department of Agriculture are working together to study evolutionary changes to Fusarium graminearum, a fungus that causes fusarium head blight.
The disease affects yields and grades in cereal crops and produces mycotoxins that may make the grain unsafe for use.
Starting in 2005, the grain commission began to share samples of Fusarium graminearum with a USDA laboratory in Peoria, Illinois.
The Canadian samples were collected from fusarium-damaged wheat kernels collected over a 20-year period from the harvest sample program.
For more information on the harvest sample program, visit the commission’s website at www.grainscanada.gc.ca/ and type “harvest sample program” into the search box.
The fusarium study is supported by a grant from the Western Grains Research Foundation.
BASF appointment
BASF Canada has appointed Brian Denys as business director of BASF Canada crop protection.
Denys has worked for BASF since 2000, serving most recently as global marketing manager for fungicides.
Before that, he was national marketing manager with BASF Canada crop protection, in charge of marketing and strategic planning for the Canadian business.
As business director, he will be responsible for the complete BASF portfolio of herbicides, fungicides, seed treatments, Clearfield crops and specialty products and all associated business goals.
Denys grew up on a farm in western Ontario. He holds a bachelor of commerce degree from the University of Guelph, Ont.
