CWB Deal Not What Most Shippers Want

Shippers frustrated by inadequate rail service won’t likely be keen to copy an agreement struck by CP and the Canadian Wheat Board to improve grain shipments. The agreement is short on specifics especially whether it contains any financial penalties for non-performance, said Bob Ballantyne, president of the Canadian Industrial Transportation Agency. The railways want to

It’s Wet Across The West

Snow is still piled deep on Humphrey Banack’s Camrose, Alberta grain farm at a time when he’s usually tuning up his tractor for planting. The wettest fields before planting since the 1970s look to frustrate Canadian farmers’ zeal to sow their fields on time this spring and cash in on wheat and canola prices that


Getting Agriculture Some Recognition In The Federal Election

Grain Growers of Canada was the first farm group to pitch farm policies to the parties competing in the May 2 election. President Stephen Vandervalk asked the party leaders “to make agriculture a key part of your election platform. Recent issues like food prices, food safety, biofuels and sustainability have created public interest in agriculture.”

Feds Wouldn’t Guarantee CWB Laker Loan

Those two controversial lake ships the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) is buying for $65 million will be paid for by farmers over four years instead of 25 because the federal government wouldn’t guarantee the CWB’s loan. “For various reasons they (federal government) weren’t going to accept that (guaranteeing a loan) so we devised a plan


Changes Coming To CWB’s Select Winter Wheat Program

The Canadian Wheat Board has made changes to its select winter wheat program in hopes of transporting and marketing the crop more efficiently. In the past, farmers signed Guaranteed Delivery Contracts for select winter wheat throughout the crop year. Now farmers hoping to market the winter wheat they planted last fall as select must register

In Brief… – for Mar. 31, 2011

Data collection:Rural community foundations will benefit from federal funds helping them collect annual data on how their communities are surviving. Vital Signs portraits measure the vitality of local communities using selected social and economic trends and evaluating areas having a significant impact on the quality of life, such as health, environment and education. A $200,000


Remember When?

Reporters are notorious information pack rats and the Manitoba Co-operator’sAllan Dawson is no exception. Rumour has it his house is slowly settling into the Pembina escarpment due to the piles of paper, assorted reports and tape recordings stored in his office. But give Dawson a bit of time and he can pull together a pretty

Letters – for Mar. 31, 2011

I would like to address our federal agriculture minister’s continued use of the statement of “putting farmers first.” First, as a beginning farmer a short while ago, I fell through some cracks in our agriculture programs. I had appealed every decision, right up to your office, with the same outcome each time, and at each


Court Of Appeal Upholds Ritz’s Rules

The Federal Court of Appeal has confirmed legality of federal government changes to the voters’ list in the 2008 Canadian Wheat Board director elections. But the same court also ruled that the Friends of the Canadian Wheat Board (FCWB) – had a legal right to challenge the ruling. In January 2010 Federal Court Judge James

Flood Fears Prompt Grain Movement

Farmers are taking advantage of a Canadian Wheat Board program to move stored grain out of areas at risk of flooding this spring. As of March 18, 100 Manitoba producers had signed up to move 24,000 tonnes of grain, mostly wheat, off flood-prone farms and into elevators, the CWB said. Most of the signup is