Seeding has been late from the gate across the province, but there is still time for yields to finish with the front-runners, provincial extension agronomists said last week. Crops planted the third week of May can still achieve close to their full yield potential, although that potential will decline from now on, say crop experts
Good yields still possible with crops seeded soon
MAFRD's tips to mitigate the impact of delayed seeding
FLAX: Making a comeback, but seed is tight
Canada’s flax industry is slowly recovering from the damage caused by contamination from CDC Triffid
Flax is back in farmers’ good books this spring, so much so that many flax dealers have sold right out of seed. Five years after traces of genetically modified CDC Triffid flax were discovered in Canadian flax exports to Europe, Statistics Canada predicts Canadian farmers will seed 1.7 million acres of the blue-flowered oilseed this
KAP says do homework before selling grain to unfamiliar buyers
History shows sometimes even trusted companies burn farmers
Sellers beware! In the post-monopoly wheat board era many new, unfamiliar grain buyers, often American, are offering to buy western Canadian grain. The Keystone Agricultural Producers (KAP) says farmers should do their homework before striking deals to avoid getting burned. “People will spend two weeks researching which cultivator shovel to buy so it doesn’t wear
Canada’s wheat customers following registration system debate
The value of ensuring wheat quality control was underscored a year ago when complaints about weak dough strength came to light, despite Western Canada’s rigorous variety registration system. International customers are less concerned about the dough strength of 2013 crop, but still concerned nonetheless, Dave Hatcher, a research scientist with the Canadian Grain commission’s Grain
Wheat recommending committee used new procedures at annual meeting
Outgoing chair Brian Beres says the changes, the result of member consensus, streamline the wheat registration process and make it more transparent
New operating procedures have streamlined the process of reviewing new varieties of wheat for registration, but the system continues to come under pressure for even more changes. The Prairie Recommending Committee for Wheat, Rye and Triticale (PRCWRT), which recommends whether new wheats for Western Canada should be registered implemented the results of a review ordered
2014 spring seeding off to a slow start
The first above normal temperature day this season sees farmers take to the fields
Miami farmer Wes Hill was seeding spring wheat May 10 trying to get as much done ahead of the rain and cool weather that arrived May 11. Hill has been planting for a week, but lots of other Manitoba farmers haven’t been as lucky. Some south-central Manitoba farmers were taking the fields for the first
Value of Canadian farmland rises 22 per cent
The increase driven by low interest rates and strong crop prices is the biggest in three decades
Canadian farmland values jumped 22.1 per cent in 2013, the biggest annual rise in nearly 30 years, the Farm Credit Corporation says. Saskatchewan and Manitoba led the way with increases of 28.6 and 25.6 per cent, FCC said. “Most of the increase was driven by the strong commodity prices we saw in the first six
Doubling of food needs tied to poverty reduction
Cargill’s Greg Page says a 100 per cent increase in food production is doable, but it requires work, including more scientific research
Projections that world food production must double by 2050 hinge on a very big assumption — billions of poor people getting richer, says Greg Page, Cargill’s executive chairman and former CEO. “The only way for the… 100 per cent increase in food production is if the population grows by two billion and the proportion of
The $10-billion ‘problem’ Canada likes to have
Last year’s record crop is a sign of bigger things to come, industry leaders say
Last year’s record 75-million-tonne crop highlights the need for investments in expanded grain-handling capacity, industry leaders told the Canadian Global Crop Symposium April 15 in Winnipeg. “That means we’re going to have to invest… in new capacity,” said Curt Vossen, president and CEO of Richardson International. “And we’re going to have to invest, whether we
Canada’s grain system increasing its capacity
Millions of dollars are being invested in country elevators and port terminals to handle the West’s growing crop production
Western Canada’s grain companies are adding capacity to the handling system, demonstrating they don’t see last year’s record crop as an anomaly, says Curt Vossen, Richardson International’s president and CEO. Last week the CWB announced its plan to buy Prairie West Terminal, which has four country elevators with 77,000 tonnes of storage, he said on
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