Ag Notes

Winter cereals checkoff The Saskatchewan Winter Cereals Development Commission is collecting check-off funds. As of Oct. 1, the commission has been collecting a mandatory but refundable producer checkoff of 50 cents per tonne on winter wheat, fall rye and winter triticale. It will be deducted by buyers at the first point of sale and is […] Read more

CFIA talks tough on U.S. produce

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency may have to impose drastic import restrictions on fresh produce from California if Canadian concerns about its safety are not cleared up, a senior CFIA official said last week. Bashir Manji, acting director of the agency’s food-of-plant-origin division, told the House of Commons agriculture committee Oct. 17 that CFIA officials […] Read more

Stock Sales

Oct. 28: Commercial cattle show and sale, Edam, Sask., 306-397-2727 Oct. 29: Hill Country Classic Shorthorn sale, Lloydminster, 306-825-2674 Nov. 4: Bison auction, Drayton Valley, Alta., 780-542-4337 Nov. 11: Bison auction, Beaverlodge, Alta., 780-354-2423 Nov. 15: Bison auction, North Battleford, Sask., 306-445-5000 Dec. 2: Bison auction, Drayton Valley, Alta., 780-542-4337 Dec. 6: Bison auction, North […] Read more


Sugar plant in jeopardy

Rogers Sugar executives are on Parliament Hill this week warning that American proposals to restrict market access for a sugar beet product could close the company’s sugar refinery in Taber, Alta. And that, say representatives and defenders of the sugar beet industry, would be a bitter blow for southern Alberta. “These proposed changes would have […] Read more



Vote may prove crucial to fate of wheat board

The choice has never been so clear, nor the stakes so high. As the federal government moves ahead with plans to replace the Canadian Wheat Board’s monopoly with an open market for wheat and barley, tens of thousands of grain farmers in Western Canada have a chance in the next few weeks to send a […] Read more

Gov’t agency halts glyphosate imports early

Sharon Hart dotted all her i’s and crossed all her t’s when filling out an Own Use Import application to bring in 3,000 litres of glyphosate from the United States. She sent the form before the Sept. 30 application deadline. “Now the Pest Management Regulatory Agency is not willing to recognize our import permit and […] Read more

U.S. determined on vegetable inspection

The United States has no intention of backing away from contentious proposals to increase border inspection of fruit and vegetable imports from Canada, but it may be able to make it less obtrusive and costly, the senior U.S. agriculture official in Ottawa said last week. Gary Groves, minister-counselor at the U.S. embassy in Ottawa representing […] Read more


Strahl plans time line for decision on CWB

Federal agriculture minister Chuck Strahl says that by the beginning of the next crop year, he wants to have transformed the Canadian Wheat Board into a voluntary marketer competing with other grain trade players. In the winter, he will tell farmers what he plans so they can make their spring seeding decisions accordingly. By the […] Read more

Import program onerous: PMRA

The Pest Management Regulatory Agency says the controversial Own Use Import program has been a huge drain on its resources. In 2006, the agency approved 3,309 permits to import 6.38 million litres of ClearOut 41 Plus glyphosate from the United States. That is up slightly from the 3,146 permits and 5.73 million litres of chemical […] Read more