ag news

Alberta Agriculture expects crop yields this year will be down about 15% from the 5 year average.  For spring wheat, the average dryland yield estimate for this year is 38.9 bushels per acre, down from the 5 year average of 46.1.  Barley yields are expected to be just under 55 bushels an acre, down about 5 bushels from […]

U.S. corn condition fell for the first time in several weeks as intense heat baked much of the country last week. According to the USDA’s weekly crop progress report, 55% of corn was rated good to excellent, down 2 percentage points from the previous week. The condition of the U.S. soybean crop also suffered in the heat.  […]

Grain movement at Canada’s west coast ports wasn’t seriously impacted by the British Columbia port workers strike last month. But the next few months might be a different story.  Mark Hemmes is the President of Quorum Corporation.  Quorum tracks grain movement in the country.   He says the volume of grain that has been moving recently […]

The Saskatchewan Cattlemen’s Association is hosting two more townhall meetings this week in drought-stricken areas of the province. One is this afternoon (Tues) in Cabri at the Cabri Community Hall from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. The other is tomorrow (Wed) from the Cadillac Community Hall in Cadillac from 1:30 to 4:30 as well. In addition […]

It’s back to the future. Lawrence MacAulay has returned as federal agriculture minister. Despite the warm words of welcome from farm organizations across the country, I suspect the actual response was surprise followed by a collective groan. No farm organization wants to poison their relationship with the old/new agriculture minister by saying what they really […]

The Canadian Grain Commission is walking back on changes to test weight standards. The commission originally decided to align export tolerances for test weight and total foreign material for 5 different class of Canadian wheat, effective August 1st, but that’s now been repealed. This comes after stakeholders raised concerns, including the Saskatchewan Wheat Development Commission, […]

A rancher was at a townhall meeting in Kindersley on Tuesday about the drought and what supports are available. Arlene Boisjoli, who has a ranch south of Kindersley, says the meeting was well-attended by producers and representatives from Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corporation, Saskatchewan Cattlemen’s Association, Farm Credit Canada, and a few R.M. Reeves. She says […]

A well-known agronomist from southern Saskatchewan believes stripper headers on combines, that leave long-standing stubble, is the way to go for coping with dry conditions. Troy LaForge says several other benefits come from using stripper headers. “Catching more snow in the winter time is a big benefit and ultimately protecting the land from wind and […]

Southwest Saskatchewan drew the short end of the stick when it comes to the weather. Shannon Chant, a Crops Extension Specialist based in Swift Current, says the temperature in that part of the province has been in the high 20’s to low 30’s since mid-May. The crops have suffered from heat stress and are shorter […]

Ag-in-Motion set new benchmarks at this year’s show and it’s catching the eye of the international agriculture community. This year’s show welcome 31-thousand 166 guests; breaking it down: Day 1 had 9-thousand 827 attendees; Day 2, 13-thousand 084; and Day 3 had 8-thousand 255. 580 exhibitors were at the show, beating the previous record of […]