BMO in May 2020 announced an agreement to sell its 107-year-old downtown Winnipeg building to the Manitoba Metis Federation for use as a new Metis Nation Heritage Centre. (File photo by Dave Bedard)

BMO regroups ag banking business

Ag-focused national banking team put in place

With COVID-19 serving to “accelerate” changes in the industry, BMO Bank of Montreal says it has reset its farm banking work under the oversight of an expanded national agriculture and agribusiness banking team. BMO announced the new team approach Oct. 14, describing it as “a national team of agriculture banking specialists — team members with […] Read more

File photo of a quality control check on fresh peppers in a Canadian vegetable packing plant. (Jeffbergen/E+Getty Images)

Federal program to protect farms, workers from COVID-19 underway

'Highest-risk' farming operations to get priority, Bibeau says

Applications are now open for a federally-administered $35 million emergency on-farm support fund to help limit the impacts of COVID-19 on farms and on-farm workers. Aimed at farm workplaces and employee living quarters, the fund is being managed by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), but cost-shared with participating producers at a 50-50 level. Money is […] Read more



The White Pass border crossing between Alaska and northwestern British Columbia, about 25 km north of Skagway, Alaska. The proposed A2A line would largely skirt B.C. en route from Alberta to Alaska. (Thierry64/iStock/Getty Images)

Trump-backed Canadian railway to Alaska faces high hurdles

Proponents say line could move grain, fertilizer as well as oil

Winnipeg/Washington | Reuters — A private-sector proposal endorsed by U.S. President Donald Trump to build a railway from Canada’s oil sands to ports in Alaska would free landlocked crude but faces numerous steep challenges. Trump wrote on Twitter over the weekend that he would issue a permit for the Alaska-Alberta Railway Development Corporation (A2A Rail) […] Read more


Grain being loaded on a ship at the Hudson Bay port of Churchill in 2015. (MarketsFarm photo by Jade Markus)

First of four vessels arrives in Churchill

MarketsFarm — The first grain vessel of the 2020 shipping season is now at Manitoba’s northern Port of Churchill, according to Murad Al-Katib of the Arctic Gateway Group. “We’ll have an active program on durum wheat and lentils going into the Mediterranean,” said Al-Katib, who’s also CEO of Regina-based AGT Foods, one of the group’s […] Read more

An OFX widget is now available for farmers perusing AgDealer’s online listings. (GFM staff photo)

AgDealer plugs into forex service provider

Listing site to offer currency exchange service on cross-border purchases

Farmers buying used iron internationally by way of AgDealer are getting access to what’s billed as a lower-cost option to handle the currency exchange. AgDealer, Canada’s largest used farm equipment shopper publication and online listing platform, announced a partnership Tuesday with OFX Group, an Australian-based online currency exchange provider. Farmers, distributors and buyers outside of […] Read more


No injuries were reported in the collapse of a grain bin at Fibreco’s Vancouver port terminal on Sept. 11, 2020. (DNV Fire Rescue Service photo via Twitter)

‘Structural failure’ downs Vancouver terminal grain bin

Terminal owner Fibreco, bin maker AGI pledge to investigate

The owner of a new West Coast grain and pulse crop export terminal pledges to investigate the collapse Friday of a new commercial-scale grain bin at its site. Fibreco Export Inc., a wood fibre exporter majority-owned by forest products firm Tolko Industries, said in a release Saturday that “one of our new agricultural product silos […] Read more

GrainViz engineer Braden Pierce explains the system to farmers at Ag Days at Brandon, Man. in 2018. (Screengrab from GFM/Greg Berg video)

Agco to buy GrainViz system’s Winnipeg developer

System due out in limited release this fall

U.S. farm machinery firm Agco has set up a deal to buy its Winnipeg partner in the development of the GSI GrainViz grain monitoring system. Georgia-based Agco announced Friday it now has an agreement to acquire 151 Research, with which it had signed an “exclusive technology partnership” back in December 2018 to develop the GrainViz […] Read more



(Jack Dykinga photo courtesy ARS/USDA)

Seed groups weigh options as CSGA rejects merger

Grower group's membership calls nay on Seeds Canada amalgamation

The boards of five national seed sector groups planning a major merger are considering their next move after a less-than-unanimous vote on the proposal. Members of the Canadian Plant Technology Agency (CPTA), Commercial Seed Analysts Association of Canada (CSAAC), Canadian Seed Growers’ Association (CSGA), Canadian Seed Institute (CSI) and Canadian Seed Trade Association (CSTA) had […] Read more