Lethbridge County unanimously passed its new infrastructure tax on Thursday. It will no doubt increase the tax load for livestock producers in the county. Kasko Cattle Co. is a family-owned operation that runs a pair of feedyards and also farms in the county, so I called Ryan Kasko to discuss the new tax and how it… Read More
Category: Logistics
A group of farmers from across Western Canada headed down to New Orleans last week to not only take in the annual Commodity Classic farm show, but also attend the Western Canadian Wheat Growers’ annual convention. Now why would a prairie farm group hold its annual meeting in the southern U.S.? (It just happens the… Read More
Paterson Grain has announced the construction of a 55,000 metric tonne grain handling facility on Highway 2 near Bowden, just south of Innisfail, Alberta. “It will be a pleasure earning the trust of producers in Red Deer County and beyond, as we have done for the past 108 years across the Canadian prairies,” said president… Read More
Satellites are helping depict a clearer picture (literally) of what Canadian farmers grow each year. Accurately predicting and measuring production of each crop grown in Canada has been an ongoing quest for the grain industry and government agencies since farming began in North America. Or at least since the start of the 20th century when E.Cora… Read More
Back in the winter of 2013-14 when Western Canada’s grain industry was bogged down in a massive rail backlog, the upcoming review of the Canada Transportation Act was viewed as an opportunity to improve the way the rail system moves grain. The review process began in May of 2014 and the final report written by… Read More
The Beef InfoXchange System or “BIXS” aims to add value to the Canadian cattle industry by improving communication and feedback between each link in the beef value chain. It was originally launched by the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association in 2009, and in 2014 CCA partnered with ViewTrak Technologies to privatize the system. Now, another milestone announcement — an agreement with Cargill… Read More
A new report commissioned by SaskCanola says there would be no net benefit to producers from implementing a component pricing system that offers premiums or discounts based on canola’s oil content. “There was some discussion a few years ago when crush margins were widening — are farmers receiving a fair amount for the canola they’re growing… Read More
The Canadian Grain Commission is moving ahead with its proposal to realign the wheat classification system for Western Canada. Two new classes will be created while three others will be eliminated on August 1st, 2016. The Canada Northern Hard Red class will be established to address concerns about lower gluten strength in some milling wheat… Read More
North America’s first dairy milk robot was installed in 1999, less than 50 kilometres from Jack Rodenburg’s Woodstock, Ontario office. The long-time OMAFRA dairy specialist was sceptical at first, but he quickly realized that robot technology could revolutionize Canadian dairy farms. He says early models had their issues, but he quickly realized the potential for… Read More
OmniTrax has accepted a letter of intent from a group of Northern Manitoba First Nations wanting to purchase the Port of Churchill and the Hudson Bay Railway. It was first reported several weeks ago that the Denver-based transportation company was considering selling its Manitoba assets. The letter triggers a 45 day due diligence period in which both parties… Read More
The Canadian Grain Commission is proposing the creation of two new wheat classes and the elimination of two classes. The CGC is also looking to delay the removal of 29 varieties from the Canada Western Red Spring (CWRS) and Canada Prairie Spring Red (CPSR) from 2017 to 2018. After consulting with the Western Canadian grain industry, the… Read More
Statistics Canada released its first crop production estimates using a new model-based methodology on Thursday. The model takes into account satellite data, as well as historical figures from the traditional StatsCan Field Crop Reporting Series and agroclimatic information. What wasn’t required in compiling the numbers was a survey of farmers. “The traditional survey relies completely on interviewing… Read More
With the 2014-15 crop year coming to an end on July 31st, the Ag Transport Coalition has released its year-end report on rail performance in Western Canada. The data shows how despite not having a bumper crop on the prairies last fall, timeliness was still a challenge for railways servicing grain shippers. CN Rail and CP… Read More
There’s been renewed interest in using producer cars to ship grain to customers in recent years, in part due to the backlog in the Western Canadian grain handling system following the bumper crop in 2013, as well as the entrance of new grain buyers after the end of the Canadian Wheat Board’s monopoly in 2012. As… Read More
The group of grain sector representatives appointed to the federal government’s Crop Logistics Working Group has submitted another batch of recommendations for improving grain transportation across Canada. Back in February the group was tasked with identifying ways to improve the crop logistics system and establishing common positions across the supply chain for consideration in the current review… Read More