Bayer CropScience provides scholarships

Bayer CropScience Canada Inc. is offering the Bayer CropScience Scholarship for Future Leaders to recognize students who have shown leadership and made a significant contribution to agriculture. Five $5,000 annual scholarships will be awarded at leading Canadian agriculture universities to students who have led the way through leadership and engagement, and made a difference to

Canola variety selection tool now live with 2012 results

The tool includes an economic calculator, interactive maps, and the ability to refine searches by five traits

The online Canola Variety Selection tool is now live with data from the 2012 Canola Performance Trials (CPT), giving canola growers another tool to compare variety performance. The CPT provides science-based, unbiased performance data that reflects actual production practices. The selection tool provides comparative data on leading varieties and newly introduced varieties. The tool includes


Bipole route fails to consider effects on farming

The needs of agriculture were ranked equally with garter snakes, while birds, mammals and caribou were given extra consideration

The following is an excerpt of a presentation by Niverville farmer Karen Friesen to the Clean Environment Commission hearings on Bipole III last month. The hearings are continuing in Winnipeg through November. Of the 20 million acres farmed in Manitoba, only 25 per cent is classified as Land Inventory Classes 1, 2, and 3 —

Conservatives block additional scrutiny of food safety bill

Food safety legislation and sweeping changes to the Canadian Grain Commission are being rushed through Parliament with scant opportunity for MPs to consider their implications. Conservative MPs used their majority on the Commons agriculture committee last week to reject a Liberal call to extend hearings on the Safe Food for Canadians Act and have Agriculture


Ritz regrets XL Foods wasn’t pushed harder

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency should have been “more vociferous” in demanding inspection data from XL Foods during the early stages of the contaminated beef crisis, Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz admits. “The CFIA could have been more hard nosed,” Ritz said at Commons agriculture committee hearings on legislation that will overhaul the agency. But he

Bureaucratic shuffle may mean continued delay of rail bill

A shuffle at the top rank of Transport Canada has shippers worried that long-promised legislation to balance the market power of the railways and their customers will be delayed. Louis Levesque will move from deputy minister for international trade to the same post at Transport Canada Nov. 12, replacing Yaprak Baltacioglu, who will become secretary


Tough conditions for Canadian, provincial plowing matches

Neither heat, nor snow, nor rock-hard ground kept enthusiasts from 
competing in the provincial and national championships

A full week of plowing competitions wrapped up last Saturday, with entries from as far away as Ontario and New Brunswick doing their best to turn perfect furrows. Weather conditions on the field owned by the Bob Mazer family ranged from broiling hot sun, to light snow, strong winds, and rain. However there was one

Money for safe food transport

Staff /The Canadian Trucking Alliance will get $415,000 from the federal government to implement updated safety standards for hauling food. The investment will update the Trucking Food Safety Program to include the latest food safety standards, regulations and practices. The change also includes a new audit and certification process, as well as creating a user-friendly


Light up for safety

With this year’s harvest winding down, I can’t help but reflect over a season that has resulted in both one of the earliest combining seasons I have ever seen, and also one that has seemingly dragged on forever. Early seeding and hot weather in August and September has ripened off plants and allowed producers to

New use for old granary

Grain storage on the Prairies is undergoing rapid change — no more wooden box granaries, just huge, metal silos. In consequence there are a lot of empty old-style granaries farmers are simply disposing of for firewood or burning on site and burying the nails. I converted two of them into huts — one bunkhouse and