Spring wheat in a field representing the cereal crop varieties developed through Agriculture Canada's plant breeding programs on Prairie provinces.

Canada’s cereal breeding system is failing. Who fills the gap?

Agriculture Canada breeds 80 per cent of Canada’s wheat varieties. A new report says that system in no longer sustainable — and without a transition, some crops could quietly disappear from Prairie fields

Agriculture Canada breeds 80 per cent of Canada’s wheat varieties. A new report says that system in no longer sustainable — and without a transition, some crops could quietly disappear from Prairie fields.



Pea leaf weevil (Sitona lineatus), an early-season pest whose range and feeding pressure have increased in parts of the Prairies. Photo: AAFC-Williams

Pea leaf weevil chows down on Western Manitoba

Farmers in Western Manitoba are now seeing heavy feeding damage from the crop-damaging insect pest, which was first found in the province in 2019

Pea leaf weevil has spread as far east as Manitoba's Ontario border, while the west has become a Prairie-wide hotspot for the pest insect.



An aerial view of an Aramco tank farm at Ras Tanura, a Persian Gulf port city on a peninsula in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province. Photo: Aramco.com

Iran war to disrupt urea and sulphur supplies

The Middle East accounts for 50 per cent of global sulphur exports and 34 per cent of urea shipments

For Prairie farmers in need of spring fertilizers, ongoing war in the Middle East will have the biggest impact on urea and sulphur prices, an Argus market analyst says.