man at microphone

New provincial wheat and barley groups pledge to co-operate

There's agreement collaboration will make farmers' checkoff dollars stretch further

Western Canada’s new provincial wheat and barley organizations agree their best path forward is co-operating to make the best use of farmers’ checkoff dollars — but that doesn’t mean there won’t be some bumps in the road. Some were evident during a panel discussion at the Interprovincial Seed Growers meeting in Winnipeg Nov. 5 when

grain spilling out of a burlap bag

Editorial: Wheat prices – a great big mess

Critics of the Canadian Wheat Board used to routinely point to published price quotes for U.S. Dark Northern Spring (DNS) wheat from the Pacific Northwest (PNW) and assume that was a benchmark price for all wheat sold in the world. If the board got less, it must have screwed up, said the critics. In fact


stacking sacks of wheat in India

India boosts wheat subsidies to farmers

Wheat stocks already in government warehouses are nearly three times the official target

The Indian government has raised the price it will pay to buy new-season wheat from local farmers by 3.57 per cent to 1,450 rupees ($23.60) per 100 kg, encouraging the crop even though supply has exceeded demand for eight years. India, the world’s second-biggest wheat consumer, sets a price each year to protect domestic farmers

Syria plans to import one million tonnes of wheat as war rages

Jihadist rebels now control most of Syria’s wheat-growing areas

Syria plans to import one million tonnes of wheat as loss of government control over large swathes of farmland and a poor harvest have cut domestic purchases by half, a source at the state’s General Organization for Cereal Processing and Trade (Hoboob) told Reuters. “We are still studying the mode of imports, whether it will


world war 2 department of labour notice

Victory in Europe, economy on the homefront

Our History: October & November 1945

The Second World War had ended with victory in Europe declared in May and in Japan in August of 1945, but the lingering effects were still clear in our fall issues of 1945. This advertisement in the Oct. 1 issue advised how armed forces personnel could apply to be released for farm work. Economizing was

two men standing in an agricultural seed treatment facility

BrettYoung unveils new seed-treating facility at Winnipeg headquarters

The 28,000-square-foot facility can process 50 million pounds of seed a year

BrettYoung opened its new seed-treating and -coating facility at its headquarters just outside of Winnipeg Oct. 28. It’s the single biggest investment the 80-year-old, family-owned company has ever made, BrettYoung chief executive officer Calvin Sonntag said in an interview. “It signals our ongoing commitment to agriculture and to customers and supplier-partners,” he said. “This investment


vegetables in a store market

Small-scale farming at a crossroads

Is small beautiful or should the new motto be ‘move up or move out?”

As director general of the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington, D.C., Shenggen Fan has come a long way from his roots in rural China, where he shared a one-hectare farm with his parents and two brothers. The agricultural economist, honoured earlier this year by the World Food Program’s Hunger Hero Award for his

a group of culinary students preparing food

GMO food misinformation a problem: Folta

Food science can help farmers and food processors meet demands of specific demographics

Does science belong on your plate? Kevin Folta and Nancy Ames think so, as did their sold-out audience at a Canola Connect event last week at the Richardson Centre for Functional Foods & Nutraceuticals. “Humans have been engineering plants for a long time, we have abilities to do some really good stuff — grow more


bee pollinating canola

Canola Council joins coalition for bee health road map

A diverse group of corporate entities join together 
with beekeepers as the Honey Bee Health Coalition

The Canola Council of Canada has joined the Honey Bee Health Coalition, a North American coalition of more than 30 organizations, in the hopes of improving pollinator numbers. “We’re really dependent on pollinators to have seed stocks for this 20-million-acre industry, so obviously we want that relationship to continue,” said Gregory Sekulic, who represents the

wheat field

FP Genetics unveils CWRS Certified Seed Profit Guarantee

The company is confident its new wheats will outperform bin-run varieties

FP Genetics is so confident one of its new Canada Western Red Spring (CWRS) wheats is more profitable than older varieties grown from bin-run seed, it’s guaranteeing it. “We’ve developed a program that allows a grower to upgrade their wheat genetics at no risk to them,” FP Genetics CEO Rod Merryweather said in a news