Viterra has officially completed its acquisition of Nebraska-based Gavilon, giving the grain company with roots in Canada a much larger footprint in the U.S. As part of the stock purchase agreement, which was announced in January and closed on October 3, Viterra is paying Japan-based Marubeni US$1.125 billion, plus working capital and other adjustments, for… Read More
Category: Ag Business
Multimodes of action in one product is the name of the game for many new crop protection products, and BASF’s new line up for 2023 holds to that. Building on last year’s launch of Veltyma fungicide, growers in Ontario can look for Veltyma DLX in 2023 for protection from northern corn leaf blight, tar spot,… Read More
Sollio Agriculture says it will close the six active locations of Ontario Grain L.P. (Ontario Grain) and exit grain marketing in Ontario. During the wind down process, Sollio says Ontario Grain will honour all existing contracts and fulfill its obligations to farm customers, employees, and business partners for an orderly transition. Ontario Grain has six… Read More
Peer to peer learning is incredibly useful in any business, and agriculture is no different. Put simply, peer groups allow for the collective sharing of great ideas. Perhaps just as valuable, they also allow for the collective learning of hard lessons, so that peers within a group don’t have to make the same mistakes. Evan… Read More
Nitrogen has been a hot topic, not only in Canada when it comes to emissions reductions, but worldwide as Europe faces steep increases on natural gas prices, which may have crop rotations shifting in the coming years for those producers, creating a domino effect for North American growers. In Europe, they’ve see a 3600 per… Read More
On September 7th, the Bank of Canada announced a rate increase of 75 basis points bringing the overnight rate to 3.25 per cent. The move wasn’t a surprise to many, yet begs the question, are we done yet? The increase is designed to curb consumer spending and ultimately blunt inflation, however, consumer spending isn’t always… Read More
As expected, the Bank of Canada raised its key rate seventy five basis points on Wednesday morning. Heading into the announcement, a majority of financial analysts felt this would be the likely move, to trim the impact of inflationary pressure. This is the fifth rate hike in 2022 and brings the key rate to 3.25%… Read More
Statistics Canada is pivoting away from farmer-answered surveys and is utilizing various technologies to provide agriculture-related information about crops across Canada. The AgZero program uses alternative data sources including Earth observation data and satellite imagery to create reports regarding Canada’s agricultural production, reports that were usually compiled from data farmers provided. Omar Youssouf, unit head with… Read More
The next generation of leaders were at the Canadian Beef Industry Conference (CBIC) this year as a part of the Cattlemen’s Young Leaders (CYL) Mentorship Program, provided by the Canadian Cattle Association (CCA). Young producers — between the ages of 18 and 35 — are provided with industry-specific training, with a highlight in whatever interest… Read More
Ag machinery sales are showing a decline compared to last year, looking at the first seven months of 2022, however, this isn’t necessarily indicative of a bad year, says the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM). The AEM flash report for the month of July shows a decrease of 7 per cent for tractor sales in Canada… Read More
There’s no denying that farming is a string of tough decisions, from managing finances, inputs, and equipment, to deciding rotations, and managing pests and disease. However, something that perhaps takes the cake for difficult decisions and conversations is farm succession as a whole. Not only are there big business decisions to be made when developing… Read More
Global need, market prices, and implications from the pandemic have all demonstrated the benefits of bolstering local agriculture infrastructure, something that Alberta NDP ag critic, Heather Sweet, says the province needs to play catch up on. When comparing the Prairie Provinces, Alberta is showing far less traction with breaking ground on new value-added processing than… Read More
As autonomy and emerging technologies take centre stage in agriculture equipment, MNP is shining the spotlight on the importance of the basis of ag-tech: data collection and tracking. Andrew Van Os, field optimization program lead with MNP, was a keynote speaker at Ag in Motion 2022 and says comparing data year-over-year, such as soil samples… Read More
The work culture of a farm is much like its reputation — whether it’s intentional or not, it still exists. What makes a work culture? It’s not just people, it’s the behaviour of the people and how well they live out a business’s core values that create a work culture. People’s behaviour is shaped by… Read More
Fertilizer emissions have garnered quite a bit of attention across Canada, and although this isn’t a new conversation, many questions still hang in the balance as the details get ironed out. In 2020, the federal government stated it wanted to see a 30 per cent reduction in fertilizer emissions by the year 2030. Some producers… Read More