(Scott Bauer photo courtesy ARS/USDA)

Ontario tomato processors cancel orders for spring

Retaliating in a dispute with what they call a “growers’ cartel,” two of Ontario’s major commercial tomato processors say they won’t contract with tomato seedling producers for this spring’s crop. Sun-Brite Foods and Highbury Canco, which describe themselves as two of the three biggest tomato processors in the province, said Wednesday their cutback in orders […] Read more

(Deere.com)

Major Deere dealer sheds stake in Prairie chain

Canada’s biggest Deere dealership group has sold its minority stake in a Prairie dealership chain back to the chain’s majority owners. Calgary-based Cervus Equipment Corp. said Wednesday it has sold its 21.449 per cent of Maple Farms Partnership, owner of the Maple Farm Equipment chain of Deere farm equipment dealerships, back to Maple for about […] Read more


Alberta’s provincial Agriculture Minister Oneil Carlier and Medicine Hat MLA Bob Wanner (r) met Dec. 21 with producers affected by the bovine tuberculosis outbreak near Jenner, about 75 km northeast of Brooks. (Government of Alberta photo)

Quarantines added in bovine TB probe

Federal inspectors’ search for animals exposed to one of six Alberta cattle confirmed with bovine tuberculosis (TB) has led them to quarantine more farm sites for testing. As of Wednesday, “approximately 50” farm sites, mostly in southeastern Alberta with “approximately five” in southwestern Saskatchewan, are under quarantine and movement controls, affecting about 26,000 animals, the […] Read more

National EFP being considered

National EFP being considered

News Roundup from the December 2016 issue of Canadian Cattlemen

Is a National Environmental Farm Plan achievable? Representatives from all provincial EFP programs and major commodity groups attending the National Environmental Farm Plan Summit to discuss the possibilities believe that where there is a will there is a way. The November summit in Ottawa closed with strong willingness to move ahead and the Canadian Federation […] Read more


(CaseIH.com)

Syngenta, DuPont patent new herbicide chemistry class

The crop chemical arms of DuPont and Syngenta are working together on a new class of herbicide chemistry they’ve jointly patented and taken to the “pre-development” stage. DuPont Crop Protection and Syngenta announced Monday they’ve published a joint patent, titled “Substituted cyclic amides and their use as herbicides,” and expect to launch herbicides based on […] Read more

Saskatchewan Agricultural Hall of Fame inductees in 2017

Newsmakers from the December 2016 issue of Canadian Cattlemen

Cattlemen Tim Oleksyn and George Cooper, and grain producer Art Mainil will be inducted into the Saskatchewan Agricultural Hall of Fame in 2017. Tim Oleksyn, a rancher and farmer from Shellbrook, has been a supporter of beef research for decades. He has been a board member and chair of the Western Beef Development Centre and […] Read more


(CBSA via YouTube)

Duration limit lifted from foreign worker program

Canadian farm groups are among the sectors hailing Ottawa’s decision to axe the cumulative duration rule, or “four-in, four-out” policy, which stood to sideline temporary foreign workers from the Canadian market. The federal government announced last Tuesday (Dec. 13) it would lift the restriction, effective immediately. The cumulative duration rule had been in place in […] Read more

A worker at Chilliwack Cattle Sales is shown kicking a dairy cow in the head in covert video from 2014. (Mercy For Animals via Youtube)

Major dairy farm gets six-figure fines in cruelty case

British Columbia’s largest dairy farm has been slapped with a reported $300,000 in fines after entering guilty pleas to charges of animal cruelty, stemming from covert video shot in 2014. Chilliwack Cattle Sales (CCS) and co-owner Wesley Kooyman were convicted Friday in Provincial Court over violations of the province’s Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act. […] Read more



Gerry Taillieu of Tomahawk Cattle Ranch received ALUS Canada’s Producer Innovation Award.

A year of firsts for ALUS

A celebration at Toronto’s Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in recognition of the W. Garfield Weston Foundation’s $5 million contribution to the ALUS (alternative land use services) program in support of conservation and agriculture across Canada marked the formal relaunch of ALUS as “ALUS Canada – a Weston Family Initiative,” and the debut of the New […] Read more