Costs call for higher milk prices now: DFC

Rising costs for fuel and other ag inputs make an immediate increase in the price paid for milk at the farm gate urgent for dairy farms to stay solvent, the Dairy Farmers of Canada warned Monday. The DFC recently asked the Canadian Dairy Commission for an immediate increase of 3.5 cents per litre for milk […] Read more

Viterra names VP for Asia

A vice-president with Archer Daniels Midland’s Asia Pacific operations has moved to take on the same job for Viterra. Stephen Yu has worked for ADM since 1993, most recently as its corporate vice-president and managing director, Asia Pacific, handling commercial activity in the region including 25 operations in China, Viterra said. Working for Regina-based Viterra, […] Read more


Ag ministers prepare to sign new APF

Several of Canada’s provincial agriculture ministers plan to endorse a new agricultural policy framework at this week’s annual ag ministers’ conference in Quebec City. The conference, which starts Tuesday, features the release of the new five-year multilateral Growing Forward framework, replacing the Agricultural Policy Framework (APF) developed under the Chretien government and launched in 2003. […] Read more

Sask. ditches open for haying July 8

Ditches on provincial highways will be open Tuesday for anyone to cut and bale hay or grass, the Saskatchewan government said Monday. Up until July 8, landowners, leaseholders or their designates have the first option either to cut or bale ditch hay along provincial roads, or to grant permission to others to do so. “These […] Read more


Time to give on supply management: Chamber

The Canadian Chamber of Commerce has gone public urging Ottawa to show some give in its protection of supply management at global trade talks. The chamber — which bills itself as the “voice of Canadian business” and claims 170,000 members including businesses, business groups, boards of trade and other chambers of commerce — on Friday […] Read more

Viterra’s GSU staff plan strike

Unionized staff in Viterra’s Saskatchewan country operations and head office plan a rotating strike to start Monday, in response to the grain company’s plans for a rotating lockout. Picket lines are to go up around the company’s Victoria Avenue head office in Regina after midnight on July 7, the Grain Services Union (GSU) said in […] Read more


OTM rule sent back for comment: report

The rule that allows older Canadian cattle to enter the U.S. must be reopened for a public comment period, a U.S. district court judge ruled Thursday, according to a report from financial news agency Bloomberg. Bloomberg’s Edvard Pettersson reported Thursday that U.S. District Judge Lawrence Piersol found for the protectionist U.S. ranchers’ group R-CALF USA, […] Read more

Yukon names new minister for farms

Yukon Premier Dennis Fentie’s cabinet shuffle Thursday puts a new minister in charge of the territory government’s ag file. Lake Laberge MLA Brad Cathers, who until now has been Fentie’s minister for health and social services, takes over from Archie Lang as minister for energy, mines and resources, a portfolio that includes responsibility for agriculture. […] Read more


Lakeside sale cause for relief: GMC

Canadian cattle feeders can take a bit of assurance that the Lakeside beef plant at Brooks, Alta., will be in “strong hands” after its sale and may even spur new competition for cattle, according to a new report from the George Morris Centre. In a report released Thursday, the Guelph, Ont.-based ag think tank’s market […] Read more

Viterra plans “rotating” lockout

The Grain Services Union (GSU) is pondering its next move after Canada’s largest grain handler announced a “rotating lockout” of some unionized staff will start Monday. Viterra management announced Wednesday that it has served a legal notice to the GSU for a lockout that does not physically keep workers in the affected bargaining units from […] Read more