Hog facility uses undercover video as training tool

An undercover video capturing poor treatment of pigs at a Red Deer assembly yard will be used as an employee training tool, says the chair of Western Hog Exchange. Brent Moen said staff and employees would go through the video frame by frame to help learn how to better handle hogs at the assembly yard. […] Read more

The eastern part of the Prairies will likely remain wetter for the next 20 years, says an historic climatologist.  |  File photo

Get used to water, says climatologist

‘New normal’ | Analyst expects more wet springs for Manitoba and eastern Saskatchewan

NEW ORLEANS, La. — Growers in the eastern Prairies will need to keep their rubber boots handy for the next couple of decades, says an historical climatologist. “We are now in a new normal,” Evelyn Browning-Garriss, author of the Browning Newsletter, told the 2014 Oilseed & Grain Trade Summit. The new normal, which includes wet […] Read more

EPA dismisses neonics’ effectiveness

Planting soybean seeds with a neonicotinoid seed treatment offers zero yield benefits, says the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. In a memorandum released Oct. 15, EPA’s biological and economic analysis division reviewed published data and EPA proprietary data on soybeans and neonicotinoids, a class of insecticides applied as a coating to the seed. The EPA determined […] Read more


Ex-Cargill manager fights attempt to keep him from rival

CHICAGO (Reuters) — Valuable trade secrets that Cargill Inc. claims were stolen by a longtime manager in its meatpacking division who quit for rival JBS SA are nothing more than basic butchery, lawyers for the employee said in court documents. Privately held Cargill, one of the top U.S. meat producers, is asking a federal judge […] Read more

Yara counts cost of failed merger talks with CF

NEW YORK/OSLO (Reuters) — CF Industries ended merger talks with Norway’s Yara International that would have created a US $24.5 billion fertilizer producer, leaving Yara with nothing to show for a short-lived courtship that cost it two chief executives. Chicago-based CF and Yara failed to agree the terms of a “merger of equals” to create […] Read more


Canadian inflation hits target, but how much is temporary?

OTTAWA (Reuters) — Canadian inflation settled exactly at the Bank of Canada’s target of two percent in September, with the core rate staying at 2.1 percent, according to Statistics Canada data released on Friday. Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz has said some recent price increases were temporary and so should be ignored, suggesting a […] Read more

Planting delays in Brazil seen limiting January soy offer

SAO PAULO (Reuters) — Soybean planting in Brazil’s top growing state of Mato Grosso is 18 percentage points behind last year’s pace, the state’s farm institute IMEA said on Friday, likely limiting the country’s soy offer in January. As of Oct. 16, 9.3 percent of the state’s expected crop had been sowed, barely changed from […] Read more

Bryn Rawlyk loads locally grown pumpkins into the oven that will be used for pies at the Night Oven Bakery.  |  Taryn Riemer photo

Bakers proud of local sourcing

Milling Saskatchewan grain | Couple enjoys personal contact with suppliers of wheat, rye and spelt

Fresh from the field takes on a whole new meaning at this Saskatoon bakery. Bryn Rawlyk and his wife, Beth Côté, have been milling their own flour and producing artisan breads and pastries at the Night Oven Bakery since it opened in March. The couple learned their skills by baking and working in kitchens and […] Read more


Falling crop prices haven’t hit prairie land rental rates yet, but if revenue continues to decline it will eventually take rates down from the high levels of recent years, say experts.  |  File photo

Farmland rental rates slow to respond to commodity prices

Economist expects prices will adjust, but farmers 
with multi-year contracts will see margins squeezed

Prairie crop receipts will be down this year, but it won’t necessarily be immediately reflected in the price that farmers pay for rented land, says a Farm Credit Canada economist. Money on hand is just one factor affecting prices, said Craig Klemmer, senior agricultural economist with FCC. “Rental rates are notoriously sticky,” he said. “They […] Read more

U.S. farmers seen cutting fertilizer use as crop prices slide

(Reuters) — U.S. farmers are cutting back on spreading fertilizer this autumn in response to a drop in crop prices to multi-year lows and a delayed harvest, dealers say, warning of a pullback that will be felt from grain markets to Canadian potash mines. Ten of 12 U.S. farm retail companies surveyed by Reuters say […] Read more