Daily Network News

More News →

Potatoes

Darlene Compton, shown here on provincial budget day in 2020, became Prince Edward Island’s first female ag minister in 2022. (PrinceEdwardIsland.ca)

P.E.I. ag minister, ag critics re-elected

Tories return with majority; Liberals regain official opposition

By ,
Prince Edward Island’s incumbent agriculture minister and opposition agriculture critics prevailed in Monday night’s provincial election, in which incumbent premier Dennis King’s Tories were returned with a majority. Darlene Compton, King’s agriculture minister since last summer and his incumbent deputy premier, won re-election Monday for the Progressive Conservatives in her district of Belfast-Murray River. Compton,
Canada is behind on methods to use water efficiently as there is little regulatory incentive to economize.
News

Change in water culture necessary, experts say

Water shortages can cause tension between farmers, governments and other competing needs

By
An abundance of water has made Canadians “water hogs” and cultural change will be needed if citizens are to become more efficient in a warmer, dryer climate, experts say. “Canada has an embarrassment of riches when it comes to sources of fresh water, and water is provided at a very low cost to households and
Close-up of a McDonald’s double Quarter Pounder with bacon. (Corporate.mcdonalds.com)
Livestock, Markets

McDonald’s reported laying off hundreds of corporate employees

Layoffs don't include restaurant-level workers

By ,
New York | Reuters — The number of corporate employees McDonald’s Corp. plans to lay off this week will tally in the “hundreds,” a source familiar with the burger chain’s thinking said on Monday, as the company moves forward with a previously announced restructuring. The fast-food company is closing its offices “out of respect,” and
File photo of potatoes in storage. (Kativ/E+/Getty Images)
Crops

Potato wart survey gives clean bill of health

Fields across Canada with a history of getting seed potatoes from P.E.I. tested negative

By ,
A national survey on the watch for potato wart has come back clean. On March 13, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) said results from their 2022 potato wart survey had not found any cases of the soil-borne fungus. The agency had tested nearly 1,500 soil samples from fields in British Columbia, the three Prairie
McCain Foods’ french fry processing plant near Coaldale, Alta. (University of Lethbridge video screengrab via YouTube)
Crops

McCain to double Alberta french fry plant capacity

Lethbridge-area plant to more than double staff count

By ,
Alberta’s plans to boost its irrigated acres are being met near the starting line with a major french fry producer’s plans to double the capacity of its plant there. McCain Foods announced Monday it will put up $600 million to build two new production lines for frozen french fries and potato specialty goods at its
A grasshopper in a canola field near Starbuck, Man. in the summer of 2019. (MarketsFarm photo by Glen Hallick)
Crops

Adama’s lambda-cy products to be available this year

Company to continue selling Silencer, Zivata after recall

By ,
The Canadian arm of ag chem firm Adama says it’s relabelled its inventories of lambda-cyhalothrin insecticide products Silencer and Zivata and will have them available for sale to farmers in 2023. The company had said last November it wasn’t yet sure those products would be available this year under an approaching deadline following a 2021
The harvest in mid-September made for a pretty picture but the results from a trial of two biostimulants on durum grown on Bishop Farms didn’t produce any yield or quality differences. Erek Bishop said he wants to conduct further trials.
Crops, News

Search for the holy grail of N fertilizer continues

The jury is still out on products containing nitrogen-fixing bacteria

By ,
Real-world tests of nitrogen-fixing bacteria products conducted across the Prairies have shown limited promise, but farm groups aren’t throwing in the towel. “I’m not ready to close the book on these trials just yet,” said Laura Schmidt, a production specialist with Manitoba Pulse and Soybean Growers. In 2022, MPSG ran 10 trials with Envita, which uses naturally occurring bacteria to take
Global food systems currently do not prevent malnutrition.
Comment, Op/Ed

Comment: How science and innovation can strengthen global food systems

From 3-D printed food to the cultivation of ‘orphan’ crops, there are clearly identified goals

By
Food systems, from production to consumption, are complex in nature and require co-ordinated efforts at different levels. Food systems are the public policy decisions, the national and global supply chains and the public or private individuals and groups that influence what we eat. Unfortunately, current global food systems are not sustainable. One in nine people
Tracy Shinners-Carnelley updates potato producers on changing fungicide rules at Potato Production Days in Brandon in late January.
Crops, News

Adjusting to the new fungicide reality

Broad spectrum fungicides are increasingly off the table for potato production

By
Potato producers have seen their last year for the old label of mancozeb. The grace window given to the multi-site contact fungicide by Health Canada ran out as of November 2022. The fungicide has been “a staple in the industry for fungicide use,” said Dan Sawatzky, manager of the Keystone Potato Producers Association. “I think there are other
Manitoba potato growers say they’ve reached the limit of existing irrigation licenses.
News

Potato water in Manitoba running short 

Water licence availability might cap sector growth ambitions

By
Manitoba’s processing potato producers have water worries. Specifically, they’re concerned about the number of available water licences, which allow the irrigation-reliant industry to draw from surface or groundwater. Dan Sawatzky, manager of the Keystone Potato Producers Association, says aquifer access is “basically fully allocated,” as are the minor streams some producers use to refill reservoirs.

AgCanadaTV

AgCanadaTV Special Feature: Crop pest insects to watch out for in 2026

Sponsored by:
More Videos →

Latest Market News

More Market News →