Farm group backs U.S. immigration reform

The largest U.S. farm group is throwing its weight behind a new immigration law reform that would allow undocumented workers already in the country to gain legal status. Delegates at the annual meeting of the six-million-member American Farm Bureau Federation issued the call after U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack asked them to speak up for

Deaths in farm workplace decline

The number of fatalities is falling on Canadian farms, but the statistics are far from good. The average number of deaths on farms has fallen to 89 annually since 2000, compared to 118 annually throughout 1990s, according to the latest Canadian Agricultural Injury Report. No deaths is the only acceptable number, but the decline is


Will grain farming follow same corporate ownership path as hog production?

Not all KAP members are as sanguine about farming’s future as its president Doug Chorney or Manitoba Agriculture Minister Ron Kostyshyn. Lowe Farm-area farmer Butch Harder warned changes to the Canada Grain Act weaken grain farmers. With foreigners buying farmland and the government cutting safety net programs, grain farming is being corporatized, he warned. “I

Conference speakers proof of the changing face of modern agriculture

Manitoba Farm Women’s Conference showcases how factors such as the local food movement, new entrants, and women’s changing roles are bringing a new excitement to farming

When Leona Dargis and her four sisters chose to continue to farm after their parents’ death five years ago, they knew they were breaking with convention. The girls, then ranging in age from 15 to 22, were orphaned when a small plane piloted by their father Jean and carrying their mother Joanne crashed Aug. 12,


Canada’s grain system world’s best

For years Canada’s grain industry engaged in self-flagellation, condemning the grain-handling and transportation system as inefficient. Not anymore. “We have arguably the world’s most efficient handling network,” Don Solman, Richardson’s vice-president of finance and chief financial officer told the Grain Industry Symposium Nov. 21. “Back in the 1990s, basically the network was rebuilt with large



Grains Act amendments get good grade but could be higher

Proposed changes to the Canadian Grain Commission grade well with national farm groups, but they say the results could be even better. The commission’s operating costs “must be driven down through a more comprehensive streamlining of operations than the current amendments facilitate,” said Gordon Bacon, CEO of Pulse Canada and spokesman for the Canadian Special

Letter to a young farmer…

The farm is old and needs a lot of work, you say. I hope you realize that 50 years from now your son will likely say the very same as he views your own weathered dreams, because farms, like people, never reach perfection. Yet every generation has a vision all its own, but sometimes in


Canadian dairy farms follow similar trends to main rivals

George Morris report says number of dairy farms has fallen by 90 per cent since the
late 1960s and the cow herd has shrunk from 3.5 million to one million today

Canada’s dairy herd, as well as the number of farms and processors, has contracted at about the same pace as its counterparts in the U.S., Australia, and Europe, says a new report from the George Morris Centre. The main difference is that Canada hasn’t increased milk production as much as other countries have, and due

Iowa farmland sale hits new record high at $21,900 an acre

Reuters / As the Midwest struggles with the ripple effects of this year’s devastating drought, farmland prices in Iowa hit a new record high Oct. 25 when an 80.47-acre parcel sold for $21,900 an acre, the auction firm that handled the sale said Oct. 26. The parcel is located in Sioux County near Boyden, Iowa,