The White House announced a second direct payment program this week for American farmers that have suffered loss of market access due to the U.S.’s trade war with China. The program totals US$16 billion and covers a majority of crops and livestock produced in the U.S. At the same time, Canadian producers are just as… Read More
In the wake of several high-profile accidents involving semi trucks, Saskatchewan has moved to ensure potential drivers receive more training. On April 6, 2018 sixteen people were killed and 13 injured when a semi-trailer failed to yield at a flashing stop sign and crashed into a bus carrying players and staff of the Humboldt Broncos… Read More
If your farming career is less than 20 years old, you’ve likely not had the shock of seeing your debt payments balloon as interest rates rise. Why? Because interest rates have been historically low and very steady for a very long time. That ‘cheap money’ environment is changing, however, as the Bank of Canada has… Read More
The Government of Saskatchewan has released its findings from the trespassing survey sent out in the later part of summer. Out of the 1,601 responses, two-thirds, or 65 per cent, of the rural property owners surveyed, support consent having to be obtained in advance to access privately-owned land. “The responses show that many people see… Read More
Producers in the U.S. were more optimistic last month versus the month before according to the latest Purdue University/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer. The October barometer reading of 136 was 22 points higher than the prior month, which was the lowest reading for the survey since 2016. The producer sentiment jumped back up from the… Read More
With the announcement of the carbon tax program implemented in provinces without a nationally accredited carbon tax policy, people in two of the three prairie provinces have flipped their vote to support the federal government’s plan. According to a recent poll conducted by the Angus Reid Institute, the public’s perception in Alberta and Saskatchewan of… Read More
The dust has settled after the fanfare of trade negotiators moving on from NAFTA 2.0 and giving us the U.S.-Mexico-Canada agreement, a new, trilateral trade agreement that moves now to ratification within each of the three signatories. Now, nearly a month out from the announcement, Canadians have sifted through news coverage and nearly half have… Read More
37 per cent of Canadians want to end the supply management system and compensate farmers in order to secure a trade deal with the U.S., suggests one of the latest Angus Reid Institute (ARI) polls. On the flip side, 34 per cent of people surveyed say they stand firm on the system and trade-related restrictions… Read More
Scouting season is in full force no matter the crop conditions. We could talk about your potential yields or we could talk about your footwear. Are you the kind of crop scout that wants to protect your toes, let your feet breathe, or make sure you are ready to walk 10 miles in a day?… Read More
In a perfect world, you’d price grain several times a year, locking in a percentage of production at a profit, as determined by a complete cost of production figure. But farming isn’t perfect, and only the truly disciplined (and lovers of all things marketing) have annual pricing plans and stick with them. In reality, bills… Read More
The name Monsanto is headed for retirement. Bayer has confirmed it will no longer use the name after it closes its US$63 billion acquisition of Monsanto. Monsanto has been the target of anti-GMO activists for years, serving as a corporate lightning rod for critics of genetic modification and crop protection technology in general. Whether referenced… Read More
“Hello, I’m calling on behalf of Statistics Canada. Would you have time…” It’s a familiar phone call for most Canadian farmers when StatsCan conducts its surveys for estimating crop and livestock production statistics across the country. The inconvenience of having to spend the time on the phone, combined with not wanting to share information about what’s… Read More
In this piece: A brief background on the Cambridge Analytica situation | Personal data – do we know what we’re signing up for? | Mental health – how does using social media make us feel? | Will you #deletefacebook? We’ve known for a while that social media is a complicated beast, especially as it relates… Read More
Can you have too much grain storage on farm? Is on-farm grain storage a trap to procrastinate in marketing your crop? Depending on where you farm, what’s the ideal amount of grain storage relative to your annual crop production? On-farm grain storage has always been a necessity on the prairies, but capacity is growing in… Read More
Earlier this month, Morris Industries saw a change of ownership, with Calgary-based Avrio Capital and Lamont Brown Group acquiring a majority stake in the business. In the press releases and the media coverage of the investment, there was considerable emphasis on the fact that the company remains Canadian. In a conversation with Kelvin Heppner and… Read More