New Brunswick’s assistant deputy minister for agriculture will act as the lead bureaucrat for agriculture in the province after the current deputy retires. Premier Brian Gallant on Wednesday named Cathy LaRochelle, assistant deputy minister for both the provincial department of agriculture, aquaculture and fisheries and the department of energy and resource development, as acting deputy
New Brunswick deputy ag minister retiring
University of Manitoba seeks nominations for agricultural award
The University of Manitoba wants to hear from you about outstanding graduates of its agriculture diploma and degree programs. It’s seeking nominees for its annual certificate of merit, typically granted annually to a graduate of each program. The honour is in recognition of leadership with agricultural organizations and outstanding service to the community at large. Nominations
How to go broke farming
Our History: November 1927
The Delco-Light generator advertised in the November 1927 issue of The Scoop Shovel would provide “brilliant, safe evening light which makes reading a pleasure — enables the children to study better.” The unnamed writer of “The Pool Woman” column reflected on media reports that a national church assembly in Spain had met to discuss the
P+H plans new east-central Alberta elevator
Winnipeg grain and agrifood firm Parrish and Heimbecker is set to reinforce its recent arrival in the east-central Alberta retail market with a new grain elevator. Privately-held P+H announced Tuesday it will build a new 46,000-tonne capacity grain elevator and crop input centre at Viking, about 120 km southeast of Edmonton. The Viking site will
Quebec veal processors merging
The bulk of Quebec’s veal processing capacity is forming up under one banner as Delimax-Montpak gets set to buy its rival Ecolait out of creditor protection. Delimax-Montpak Group announced Friday it has an agreement in principle to buy St-Hyacinthe-based Ecolait for total consideration of $50 million. Delimax-Montpak said Friday the deal “will allow the veal
Water out of wine
New University of Saskatchewan chemistry research could pave the way for cheaper gas and booze
A University of Saskatchewan PhD chemistry student has devised a new and more energy-efficient way to separate water from ethanol. Leila Dehabadi is using starch-based materials such as corn, and can extract the water without using additional energy to isolate the ethanol, which could reduce the cost of biofuels. “Compared to distillation, this new approach
U.S. study links bumblebee declines to fungicide use
A new look at the environmental factors around declining bumblebee populations and ranges points to a less-than-usual suspect: fungicides. “Insecticides work; they kill insects. Fungicides have been largely overlooked because they are not targeted for insects, but fungicides may not be quite as benign — toward bumblebees — as we once thought,” Scott McArt, assistant
Mail-order catalogue shopping
Our History: November 1953
There was no online ordering from Amazon in November 1953, but you could start doing your Christmas shopping by mailing an order for items in the Eaton’s catalogue. One news item that month was that Canada’s population was approaching the 15-million mark — less than half the 35.2 million reported in the 2016 census. But
Agrico buys stake in Alberta input retail chain
The wholesale crop input arm of Quebec’s La Coop federee has expanded its retail reach further west on the Prairies with a stake in a central Alberta input retailer group. Agrico Canada, part of the Quebec federation of ag co-ops since 2011, last week announced a deal to buy a 50 per cent interest in
Harvest goes hands free
British researchers have put automation to test in the farm field
A U.K. research project has planted, tended and harvested the first crop — of spring barley — that’s never seen direct human labour. Hands Free Hectare was aiming to test the concept in the field and consciously chose smaller machinery, said Jonathan Gill, a researcher at Harper University. “There’s been a focus in recent years