Canadian Ag News

The Canadian cattle herd has fallen to its lowest level in more than 30 years. Statistics Canada reports on January 1st, there were 11.1 million cattle and calves on farms, down 2.1 percent from the previous year. That is the lowest number since 1989. Drought conditions and tight feed supplies, along with good prices, resulted […]

India has extended the timeline for duty-free imports of yellow peas by one through the end of April. There have been duty-free imports on yellow peas since early December. It was part of New Delhi’s intervention to cool the prices of the overall pulse basket. India largely imports yellow peas from Canada and Russia. India […]

A call to Alberta producers is being made to participate in a pilot program this year. Agriculture Financial Services (AFSC), an Alberta Government Crown Corporation, is looking for cow-calf producers or those with diverse operations for the project, which will look at how to fully capture input costs under the AgriStability program.  This follows a […]

The House of Commons Standing Committee on the Environment and Sustainable Development is in the middle of a study on freshwater, specifically how to protect it, how to collaborate on all levels of government, and what role does the newly formed Canada Water Agency play in all this. On January 31st – the first committee […]

Less cattle were marketed in Saskatchewan last week compared to the prior week, according to the Canfax Cattle Market Update for the week ending February 9. There were 10,010 head of cattle marketed in the province last week, down from the 12,676 head reported the previous week. Year-to-date, the volume is down 40 percent from […]

For many years, farmers and farm organizations have lobbied for a system that would reward producers for the sequestration of carbon in the soil. Dr. Lenore Newman is the director of the Food and Agriculture Institute at the University of the Fraser Valley. She researches agricultural land use policy, ag technologies, and bio engineering in […]

The application window is wide open for the 5th annual Community Fund, put on by the Do More Agriculture Foundation and Farm Credit Canada. Do More Ag has been accepting applications since January 18 and the deadline is February 15. Executive Director of Do More Ag Megz Reynolds says  the fund offers free mental health supports […]

Drew Lerner of World Weather Inc. was the closing speaker at the Crossroads Crop Conference Wednesday in Calgary. Lerner provided some hope that 2024 will not be a serious drought year. Lerner examines a range of cycles and factors to make his growing season weather forecasts. His presentation is full of charts, graphs and maps. At […]

Changes are occurring in farm financing. At the Crossroads Crop Conference underway in Calgary, a lender highlighted some of the financing trends.  ATB Financial is a provincial body that lends primarily in Alberta, but Jonathan Neutons, ATB’s head of agriculture, addressed farm finance changes occurring across the prairies. One of the big changes has been […]

Some call it a “mystery chickpea disease” while researchers refer to it as an “emerging health issue” The problem surfaced in 2019 in the Gravelbourg, Assiniboia and Coronach regions of southern Saskatchewan.  It reappeared again the following year. Both those years featured early dry conditions followed by a big dump of rain.   Chickpea plants had […]