Transport Canada has announced a pair of exemptions that should make it easier for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to be used for commercial purposes. There’s been growing excitement about using UAVs in agriculture, but until now, a Special Flight Operations Certificate (SFOC) from Transport Canada has been required for non-recreational flights. To accommodate commercial opportunities, Ottawa… Read More
Category: Industry Issues
Things have changed quickly in society, maybe faster than ever. For example, I don’t know about you, but when I was growing up, science was definitely not cool. One of my contemporaries (age-wise), a top-notch, internationally respected environmental toxicologist, reiterated that for me recently during a discussion about occupational choices. “I didn’t become a scientist… Read More
New standards for storing and applying seed treatments are set to take effect across Canada in 2017. The new audit-based accreditation system was developed by CropLife Canada and its members “to provide uniform environmental, health and safety practices” at facilities where seed treatments are applied. If a business does not go through the accreditation process,… Read More
Genetic resistance to clubroot is breaking down in western Canada, Bt traits are losing efficacy in the States and weeds such as palmer amaranth and kochia are swiftly becoming resistant to glyphosate. Is biotechnology really offering sustainable solutions to agricultural woes? According to Maurice Moloney, group executive, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization in Australia, though western Canadian farmers… Read More
With record prices and strong profits over the last year, are we on the verge of seeing renewed excitement about pig production in Canada? The previous decade was filled with challenges, but with pork prices where they’ve been over the last year, there should be some incentive to build new barns, or at least fill… Read More
A repeat of last winter’s logistical nightmare for grain in Western Canada is unlikely. That’s because a combination of factors, including the federal shipping mandates for CN and CP Rail, summer weather and a smaller 2014 crop, have reduced the size of the rail backlog, noted the head of the company that monitors grain movement… Read More
As we say goodbye to October, colder weather is setting in just as the markets could be warming up. More than a few analysts are pointing to soy meal as a driver of the sustained rally we’ve seen in the grain markets recently, but the move is now beyond “rational levels”. With an increase in… Read More
Are you ready for corn prices down around $2.70/bushel, or soybeans under $7 next fall? Those numbers were included in some of the projections shared in Winnipeg this week, as market analysts and traders from around the world gathered for the second annual Cereals North America market outlook conference. The conference was organized and co-hosted… Read More
Genetically engineering insects is no longer a vision for the future. In fact, one group of GE mosquitoes, Oxitec Ltd’s OX513A, have moved from proof of principle to deployment, and have been used in open field trials in Malaysia, Grand Cayman, and now in Brazil. The mosquitoes are hoped to control their non-modified counterpart, Aedes aegypti, the… Read More
Municipal elections took place this week in Ontario, delivering to us a whole new slate of wide-eyed municipal councillors. Many of them ran on platforms of change, hope, difference and progress, and I believe they meant it. Typically, municipal councils are populated by well-intentioned people determined to help their own community. Municipal councillors don’t want… Read More