Kelvin Heppner, field editor for RealAgriculture, has been reporting on Canadian agriculture since 2008(ish). When he's not working on a story, he's usually in a chicken barn or a field, as he also farms with his family near Altona, Manitoba.
Manitoba farmers struggling with wet conditions this year will have a few more days to plant soybeans while still receiving full crop insurance coverage through the Manitoba Agricultural Services Corporation (MASC). A permanent extension to the AgriInsurance seeding deadlines for soybeans was announced by Manitoba Agriculture and MASC on May 20. The deadline for full… Read More
Health Canada has issued a long-awaited clarification on how it will regulate different forms of plant breeding, including newer gene-editing methods. Genetically modified crops are deemed “novel” under Canada’s regulatory framework, requiring an expensive multi-year safety review before being approved for sale, but there was uncertainty about whether gene-edited crops would also be treated as… Read More
The Chinese government has lifted restrictions on imports of canola from Canada’s two largest exporters that dated back to March 2019. Richardson and Viterra were banned from shipping canola seed to China more than three years ago. Both companies are listed as approved for exporting canola to China in a government document that was published… Read More
The Canadian government is still looking at additional measures to reduce the impact of 35 per cent tariffs on fertilizer from Russia and Belarus, according to the federal agriculture minister. However, Marie-Claude Bibeau isn’t saying what those measures could be. Farm groups, including Grain Farmers of Ontario and Grain Growers of Quebec, have been calling… Read More
Not all glufosinate ammonium herbicide formulations are the same. This is especially important to note in areas that grow both glufosinate-tolerant (aka LibertyLink) corn and canola. A corn grower in Ontario, or in the Midwest U.S., who orders Liberty or glufosinate from a retailer would likely receive a formulation containing 200g of active ingredient per… Read More
The principles around fertility and nutrient uptake in soybeans are the same, whether you’re farming in Ontario, the U.S., or Western Canada, but there are some unique or special factors to be considered by soybean growers in western and northern growing areas. Following up on this Soybean School episode from last month with Horst Bohner… Read More
Greenhouse gas emissions from nitrogen fertilizer were reduced by approximately 20 per cent in the Canadian government’s official 2022 greenhouse gas inventory report thanks to an update to how nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from fertilizer are estimated. The reduction, however, will not count toward the federal government’s mandate to reduce emissions from fertilizer by 30… Read More
Federal, provincial, and territorial (FPT) ministers of agriculture from across Canada met in Ottawa on Monday to discuss the next agricultural policy framework ahead of their annual meeting in Saskatoon in July, where they hope to sign a new five-year agreement. The ministers, nine of whom attended in-person, spent their morning session discussing want they… Read More
50 years ago this summer, Soviet agents traveled to North America in the middle of the Cold War and secretly bought massive amounts of grain, driving up world prices in one of the most significant events in the history of commodity trading — later dubbed the “Great Grain Robbery.” Russ Crawford, who had a front-row… Read More
A section on page 192 of the federal government’s new emissions reduction plan that refers to a “green levy” on pickup trucks has caught the attention of many Canadians. Thousands of people, including many Conservative politicians, have not only read but shared a column titled “Trudeau planning a tax on trucks” that was published on… Read More
The plan to recognize renewable diesel and jet fuel made from canola oil as “advanced biofuels” under the U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) was highlighted as part of an April 12 biofuel announcement by President Joe Biden. Biden visited POET Bioprocessing in Menlo, Iowa to announce a plan to allow E15 — gasoline with a… Read More
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has confirmed the first three cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza in poultry in Western Canada. The CFIA says two commercial flocks in Mountain View County and one in Ponoka County tested positive on April 6 for the H5N1 subtype that has been spreading across North America since first… Read More
The federal government is planning to boost funding for environmental programs through Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in the 2022 budget introduced on April 7. While the budget contains projections of a $52.8 billion deficit and national debt totalling $1.2 trillion at the end of 2022-23, the $452.3 billion spending plan and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s… Read More
The 2.5 day shutdown of CP Rail’s network last month was a sharp reminder why rail service, especially for agricultural commodities, should be deemed essential. Although the strike/lockout only lasted from a Sunday to a Tuesday, it caused weeks, even months, of disruption in already-stressed supply chains that rely on trains. The entire system was… Read More
The federal and Manitoba governments announced further changes to drought assistance programs for livestock producers in the province on Wednesday (March 30). The two levels of government committed a total of $155 million to AgriRecovery drought relief programs for Manitoba producers in August 2021. As RealAgriculture reported, only $32.16 million had been claimed as of… Read More
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