Pinto beans. (Scott Bauer photo courtesy ARS/USDA)

Pinto prices strong, farmers weigh new-crop options

CNS Canada –– Manitoba pinto bean spot prices are holding steady near yearly highs, as adverse weather during the growing season scaled back production. “It was a pretty wet year, compared to the previous year,” said Dennis Lange, Manitoba Agriculture’s industry development specialist for pulse crops in Altona. Areas of southern Manitoba saw heavy rainfall […] Read more

(Scott Bauer photo courtesy ARS/USDA)

Manitoba soybean acres seen rising on record yields

CNS Canada –– Soybean acreage looks set to increase next year in Manitoba due to good yields and prices. The expansion comes despite the fact the province is overdue for a killing frost and U.S. acreage is set to grow. “This year we had just over 1.6 million acres planted. Early projections call for two […] Read more


(Photo courtesy Canada Beef Inc.)

High-quality forages tougher to find this year

CNS Canada — There seems to be no shortage of forages in Western Canada this year, as wet weather has allowed grasses to keep progressing at a steady rate. Finding high-quality hay could be the challenge, however, according to crop watchers in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. “It’s been tough for guys to put four to five […] Read more

(Dave Bedard photo)

Manitoba farmers feel left out on farm policy tour

CNS Canada –– Manitoba has been dropped from an upcoming consulting tour meant to lay the foundation for Canada’s next agricultural policy funding framework. That will limit the province’s producers, the head of an industry group says. The House of Commons’ standing committee on agriculture and agri-food is holding a consulting tour to hear from […] Read more


(Peggy Greb photo courtesy ARS/USDA)

PED reappears in southeastern Manitoba

Manitoba has logged its first on-farm case of porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) in over three months, in a sow barn in the province’s livestock-intensive southeast. Southeastern Manitoba has been home to all of the province’s nine on-farm outbreaks of PED since the virus first appeared there in February 2014. In the latest case, the provincial […] Read more

Harvest action on the evening of Aug. 28 near Domain, Man., south of Winnipeg. (Shannon VanRaes photo)

Rain expected for Prairies into weekend, next week

CNS Canada — Rain is going to slow weekend harvest progress in parts of the Prairies, though farmers in most areas will still be able to get into their fields, one meteorologist says. But as temperatures drop, some late-maturing crops may have been hit with frost damage. Showers are expected to slow weekend harvest activity […] Read more


(Bruce Fritz photo courtesy ARS/USDA)

Manitoba sunflowers take beating from storms

CNS Canada –– Manitoba crops have suffered an array of problems due to unfavourable weather this year, and sunflowers are no exception. “(Sunflower) crops would be looking really good if it wasn’t for the storms that have been rolling through Manitoba over the last few weeks,” said Troy Turner, agronomist with the National Sunflower Association […] Read more

(File photo)

Shallow roots potential concern for Manitoba sunflowers

Commodity News Service Canada – Sunflower crops in Manitoba are generally in good shape for this time of year, but excess moisture in the key growing areas have kept root systems shallow, which could create problems later in the season, according to an industry participant. It’s still relatively early for sunflowers, with diseases usually not setting in until […] Read more


Photo: File/Sharlene Bennie (2014)

Combining begins in drier sections of Western Prairies

Commodity News Service Canada – Producers in southern Alberta have begun to combine some grain and pulses, according to a farm leader. “Down around Lethbridge and south of it, they had pretty decent moisture so they’ve got good crops. Guys are starting to combine winter wheat now and peas,” said Lynn Jacobsen, president of the Alberta […] Read more

Federated Co-operatives builds new fertilizer terminals

Saskatoon, Sask. – Federated Co-operatives Limited (FCL) has announced it will spend $75 million to build two new state-of-the-art, high-throughput fertilizer terminals in Western Canada. “These are not only investments in agriculture, they are investments in western Canadian communities,” said Scott Banda, CEO of FCL. “The fact that we are building these facilities in a challenging […] Read more