The Brandt Group of Companies announced Tuesday it expects to start production of its trailer lines late this summer at the former General Cable plant — a 64,000-square foot building Brandt has owned since 2012.

The plant, which is in the north end of the city near the Trans-Canada Highway, is scheduled to host a career fair July 28, Brandt said in a release. It plans to start hiring “immediately” to add 70 jobs, and to create up to 200 over the next three years.

Brandt said it also has “long-term plans for additional expansion and more equipment purchases to outfit the plant to produce utility trailers for North-America-wide distribution.”

Moving trailer production west to Moose Jaw is meant to “free up space at Brandt’s North Regina Works campus to expand production for other product lines currently being built in their Regina facilities.”

Moose Jaw’s “strong workforce and history as a centre for trailer production” made it an ideal location, the company said — a reference to other manufacturers such as Doepker and CJay with plants in the city.

Brandt has been making the Work Ready line of utility trailers since 2017 and selling them through its Deere construction and forestry equipment dealership chain. The product line today includes flatbed, tilt deck and dump trailer units. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Scoular Canada on Wednesday announced the opening of its “high-speed” flax line at Richardson, Sask., where it already processes and cleans lentils, peas and canary seed.

The company broke ground on the flax operation last winter as part of a $10 million investment at the site, which also included the recent addition of another pulse crop cleaning line.

“High-speed” refers to the “industry-leading” rate at which the plant can clean flax to the “high purity standards our customers require,” Jeff Vipond, Scoular Canada’s general manager for pulses, seeds, distilling and milling, said via email Wednesday.

That processing rate, he said, “will substantially increase our ability to grow our volumes into the high-quality ingredient space.”

The plant will produce whole and milled flax in the brown and golden categories for use in breads, cereal, bars, snacks and pastas as well as oils, supplements, pet foods and livestock feeds.

The flax plant “incorporates technology that enables it to deliver some of the highest-purity flax available on the market,” Scoular said Wednesday in a release, noting the plant is certified to Global Food Safety Initiative standards and has organic certification also.

Putting up the flax operation at Richardson was a matter of efficiency, Vipond said, as it allows the company to “leverage key personnel and a strong grower base across both sites.”

This week’s opening “coincides with a strong flax market and record-high prices for Canada,” Scoular said, as drought in North America, tight supplies worldwide and demand for pet food and flax oil have supported farmgate prices. Consumer awareness of flax as a non-GMO source of omega-3 fatty acids and fibre, meanwhile, has lifted demand.

Omaha-based Scoular dates back to 1892 but has been in Canada since 2015, when it took over the pulse and special crops division of Legumex Walker.

Its space in Canada remains mainly in the West, where it has offices at Calgary and Saskatoon, processing plants at Winkler and St. Jean Baptiste, Man. and Saskatoon and Tisdale, Sask., and grain handling sites at Brooksby, Sask. and Petersfield, Man. plus a transload site near Calgary. In the East, it has two warehouses in southwestern Ontario and one in New Brunswick.

The company in 2020 expanded its Winkler sunflower plant when it moved its Winnipeg birdseed operations there. That year it also stepped out of the Prairie edible bean business, selling the former Roy Legumex processing plants at Plum Coulee and Morden, Man. to a Michigan bean grower co-operative. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Federated Co-operatives announced Thursday it had signed a memo of understanding with Calgary-based ‘clean energy’ company Whitecap Resources, in which the latter company will store and use carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions captured from Federated Co-op’s fuel plants.

The two companies’ planned operating agreement calls for emissions captured from the Co-op Refinery Complex at Regina — and from the Co-op Ethanol Complex (CEC) wnear Belle Plaine, about 40 km west of Regina — to be transported to and stored at Whitecap’s unit south of Weyburn for later use.

Whitecap’s Weyburn unit is billed as “the single largest anthropogenic carbon sequestration project in the world,” having so far captured over 36 million tonnes of CO2.

The deal calls for FCL to “fund, construct and operate” facilities at its Regina and Belle Plaine plants that would capture almost 500,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per year for transport to Weyburn.

FCL, in its release, didn’t give a price tag for its project but Reuters on Thursday quoted the co-operative’s total spend at about $510 million.

FCL said it expects its carbon capture facility at Belle Plaine to be completed in 2024, and commissioning at the Regina refinery starting in 2026.

That said, “final investment decisions” on FCL’s projects will need “clarification” on climate change regulations and incentive programs “that support our transition to the low carbon economy.”

“Today’s announcement firmly positions Saskatchewan as a world leader in innovative carbon capture technology and is just the beginning of significant private investment opportunities in the CO2 sequestration value chain,” provincial Energy and Resources Minister Bronwyn Eyre said in FCL’s release.

“This proposed project will include CO2-enhanced oil recovery, which lowers GHG emissions by 82 per cent compared to traditional extraction methods while increasing production.”

The Weyburn unit Whitecap now owns was discovered in the 1950s and produces mainly light oil. “Waterflood” operations followed in the 1960s and CO2-enhanced oil recovery began in 2000.

“The transition to a low-carbon economy is one of the largest, but most necessary, shifts we’ll have to make in our long history,” FCL CEO Scott Banda said in the same release.

“Carbon capture and the work we’re doing with Whitecap is just one of multiple paths we’re exploring as part of a strategic plan to integrate sustainable solutions into our operations to improve environmental performance.”

Federated Co-op’s CEC, known as Terra Grain Fuels up until March this year, has operated since 2008, came to FCL in 2019 and today produces about 150 million litres of ethanol per year for blending at the Regina fuel refinery, along with 130,000 tonnes of dried distillers’ grains (DDGs) for livestock.

The Belle Plaine CEC’s ethanol feedstocks include about 350,000 tonnes per year of wheat and other “starch-rich” crops such as corn, rye and triticale bought from about 400 Prairie farmers. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The North American arm of Rotterdam-based Viterra said Monday it’s in the “feasibility” stage of designing and finalizing plans for what it bills as the “world’s largest integrated canola crush facility” in the northeast of Regina, about seven km from its downtown head office.

Construction would begin in early 2022, toward a late 2024 startup producing fully-refined vegetable oils for food-grade and biodiesel-grade end-users, the company said.

The Viterra plant’s targeted crush capacity, initially, would be 2.5 million tonnes of canola per year.

That figure would put it ahead of Winnipeg rival Richardson International’s plans for its existing canola plant at Yorkton, Sask., about 185 km northeast of Regina. Richardson last month announced a major expansion to be completed by early 2024, bringing the Yorkton plant’s annual capacity to about 2.2 million tonnes.

Asked Monday about the total cost of the project as proposed, Kyle Jeworski, Viterra’s CEO for North America, said the company is “continuing to refine” that figure, but added it would be the company’s “largest single investment in a site in Canada ever.”

“Oilseed crush demand is expected to continue strengthening in the long term, given continued demand growth for canola oil in food usage, as well as increases in meal consumption in animal feed markets,” Viterra said Monday in a release.

The Regina plant also “will play a key role in supplying the feedstock required for renewable fuel production,” which the company said would support the federal government’s planned Clean Fuel Standard.

Viterra already operates three North American oilseed crush plants — at Becancour, Que., Ste. Agathe, Man. and Warden, Washington — all of which were built by previous owners. The Regina plant would mark “the first time that we are constructing a greenfield facility” for canola crushing, Jeworski said.

Putting the Regina plant’s scope and size in perspective, Jeworski said, “if this facility was an export destination, it would be larger than our Japanese market for seed, larger than our Mexican market for seed… in an average year it would be our second-largest destination.”

The new plant would also feature “the latest technology,” he said, in terms of handling efficiency and limting emissions.

Unlike the Ste. Agathe and Warden plants, which specialize in expeller-pressed canola oil, the Regina plant would be a “traditional” hexane-extraction canola plant, he said.

Asked about Viterra’s plans against the current market picture for canola, Jeworski said that “anytime you continue to add demand, I think that’s good for the farmer; I think it’s good for Canada, in terms of continuing to diversify our markets — and we’re diversifying markets with the safest market in the world, which is our own.”

‘All directions’

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, in a separate release, hailed Viterra’s announcement as “align(ing) with our Growth Plan goals, bringing us to our target to crush 75 per cent of the canola produced in our province at home in Saskatchewan.”

Completion of the project depends on “successful negotiation and finalization of various permits, licensing, agreements with third parties and final approvals both internally and externally,” Viterra said.

The project site, Jeworski said, is on a parcel on the edge of Regina for which the company has been working with city officials for “a considerable amount of time.”

For this kind of project, the company is looking at “access to sufficient labour, which Regina has, but on top of that (the site) has excellent access for both road and rail,” Jeworski said, noting the province’s recent investments in bypass infrastructure, which would allow the plant to “access canola seed from all directions very effectively.”

Viterra’s announcement comes just days after the Canadian arm of agrifood firm Cargill announced plans for its own smaller canola crush plant at a not-yet-decided location in the Regina area, for completion in early 2024. Cargill on Thursday also pledged upgrades for its own existing crush plants at Camrose, Alta. and Clavet, Sask.

Those oilseed sector announcements also follow Federated Co-operatives’ (FCL) decision earlier this month to buy the assets of biodiesel processor True North Renewable Fuels.

The co-operative, however, has objected to Regina city council’s $4 million land sale for what turns out to be the Viterra plant — just to the north of FCL’s existing fuel refinery complex.

Writing April 11 to Regina Mayor Sandra Masters, FCL vice-president Pam Skotnitsky said that land sale “jeopardizes our planned investments and would force us to select a location apart from the city of Regina.”

FCL’s April 9 announcement, Skotnitsky said, had “highlighted our interest in locating a renewable diesel facility adjacent to the Co-op Refinery Complex.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The company announced Thursday it would start construction on the $350 million plant “early next year” and expects to have it operating by early 2024, employing about 50 people full-time.

The new facility would have a “similar design” to Cargill’s existing crush plant at Camrose, about 80 km southeast of Edmonton, and would have capacity to process up to one million tonnes of canola per year.

Cargill also said Thursday it will “update and modernize” the Camrose crush plant and its other Saskatchewan canola plant at Clavet, about 20 km southeast of Saskatoon.

Those upgrades, Cargill said, will be done over the next 12 months to “increase volume and broaden capabilities at both locations.” The company didn’t say by how much the upgrades will raise capacity at those plants.

Cargill didn’t say where exactly in Regina it will build the new plant. A company representative said via email that Cargill has options on “a number of parcels” of land near the city and will run due diligence on those sites in coming months.

Separately, CBC on Thursday quoted Cargill as saying it is not the unnamed buyer who recently optioned land just north of the Co-op Refinery Complex in a controversial $4 million deal with the city.

“We see Saskatchewan as the right place to make this investment, as Regina is well-positioned in the canola production area and there is ample talent available to support the new facility,” Jeff Vassart, president of U.S-based Cargill’s Canadian arm, said in a release.

“Our Saskatchewan producers are known worldwide for the safe, high-quality commodities that they produce and this announcement creates the opportunity for them to see a higher return for their product,” provincial Agriculture Minister David Marit said Thursday in a separate release.

Canola values suggest the crop — currently, at least — is hard to come by, with ICE May canola closing Thursday at $877.60 per tonne and new-crop November canola closing at $694.

Supply and demand estimates released Tuesday from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, meanwhile, put canola ending stocks for the 2020-21 and 2021-22 crop years at 700,000 tonnes, well down from the 3.13 million-tonne carryout seen in 2019-20. New estimates for this spring’s canola acres are due out Tuesday next week from Statistics Canada.

A company representative said Thursday via email that Cargill sees market demand continuing for oilseeds worldwide in coming years, and the company’s processing investments “will position us to take advantage of the strong export markets, the continued demand from China and opportunities in the renewable diesel and biofuels space.”

The oilseed processing space could well become crowded in southern Saskatchewan in the near future. Federated Co-operatives (FCL) announced April 9 it would buy the assets of renewable diesel processor True North Renewable Fuels.

The co-operative objected when the aforementioned $4 million deal for the sale of over 630 city-owned acres just north of FCL’s Co-op Refinery Complex was made public.

In an April 11 letter to Regina Mayor Sandra Masters, FCL vice-president Pam Skotnitsky said the proposed sale to a still-unknown buyer “jeopardizes our planned investments and would force us to select a location apart from the city of Regina.”

Recent reports have pegged grain handler Viterra as the unnamed buyer of that parcel, saying it’s seeking land to build a crush plant of its own, although Regina-based Viterra hasn’t yet confirmed that to be the case.

Among other processors in the Prairie region, Winnipeg grain handler Richardson International announced last month it was starting work on upgrades that would about double the capacity of its canola crush plant at Yorkton, about 185 km northeast of Regina, to over 2.2 million tonnes per year.

Richardson in 2017 also completed an expansion of its crush plant at Lethbridge, Alta., bringing that site’s annual capacity to over 700,000 tonnes. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Brandt, which since 2005 has held the naming rights to the Pats’ home arena, Brandt Centre — formerly the Regina Agridome — said Friday it has approval from the league’s board of governors and takes sole ownership effective immediately. Financial terms weren’t disclosed in Friday’s release.

The company until now has been a partner in Queen City Sports and Entertainment Group, which bought the Pats from longtime owners Russ and Diane Parker in 2014.

“The pandemic has created exceptional challenges for sports organizations like the WHL and the Pats have felt the effects like everyone else,” Brandt Group CEO Shaun Semple said in a release.

“At Brandt, we are huge Pats fans and strong believers in the importance of community. Regina is our hometown and we’re committed to ensuring a secure future for our home team.”

“Especially now, as we look forward to an end to the uncertainty resulting from COVID-19 and its restrictions, it is tremendously reassuring to have the strong backing of the Brandt organization and the Semple family,” Pats general manager John Paddock said in the same release.

The Pats’ current president — Todd Lumbard, one of the Queen City ownership group members — will stay with the organization in an “advisory capacity,” Brandt said.

The team was founded in 1917 as the Regina Patricia Hockey Club, named for the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, a combat unit today based at Edmonton and at Shilo, Man. The Pats today stand as the oldest major junior hockey franchise in the world to have continuously operated under the same name in the same town.

The WHL, which today includes 17 teams across Western Canada and five in the northwestern U.S., is using Brandt Centre this season as the lone hub centre for its East division, which includes the league’s five Saskatchewan and two Manitoba teams.

The East division’s season began Friday and runs until April 28, but with no in-person attendance due to COVID-19 restrictions on public gatherings.

Products made by Brandt’s agricultural division in Regina include loaders, excavators, skid steers, heavy harrows and land rollers as well as augers and other grain handling equipment. Other Brandt divisions make equipment for the construction, mining, forestry and rail sectors. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Regina equipment maker Degelman Industries announced Tuesday it has reached an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) agreement to provide Deere with a line of three heavy harrow models, the HH50, HH70 and HH82, designed for small-grain growers.

Deere, in a separate release Tuesday, billed its new heavy harrows, sold in its traditional green paint, as “a powerful new tool for managing heavy residue, controlling weeds and volunteer plants, and for warming the soil ahead of spring seeding.”

Degelman, which already makes and markets its own Strawmaster line of heavy harrows in the company’s yellow colour scheme, said its Deere line of harrows can be set up in five- or seven-row configurations with 50-, 70-, and 82-foot working widths respectively. The HH50, HH70 and HH82 come in five, seven and nine harrow sections respectively.

The HH50 is designed for use in an engine horsepower range of 285 to 325 hp; the five- and seven-row HH70 require 200-300 and 400-450 hp respectively, while the five- and seven-row HH82 need 300-350 and 475-525 hp respectively. The units can be operated at speeds of up to 19.3 km/h (12 mph) in the field, the companies said.

“The harrow’s robust torsion bar design hugs the contour of the field while keeping consistent down pressure moving across rolling terrain to effectively shatter and evenly distribute straw residue and move the soil,” Degelman said.

Deere said the new units’ quick folding and unfolding sequence will help farmers move more quickly between fields while its “long-life, low-wear” tines and drop-out tine replacement allow for easy maintenance.

While Deere dealers will have access to the new line of harrows, the Regina firm emphasized it “will continue to manufacture, market and promote the Strawmaster 7000 series of heavy harrows to our authorized Degelman dealer network as we have for the past 27-plus years.”

Through its own dealer network, Degelman will also continue to “exclusively” sell its Strawmaster Pro field conditioner, Strawmaster+ harrow and Strawmaster X disc harrow, the company said. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Canada’s Farm Show, which rebranded in December from its former Canada’s Farm Progress Show identity, announced Monday it has officially postponed to an as-yet unconfirmed date.

The annual show, organized by the Regina Exhibition Association (REAL), had been scheduled for June 16-18 at Regina’s Evraz Place.

“We have continued to monitor the COVID-19 pandemic and have adjusted and adapted to the public health orders that remain in place,” REAL CEO Tim Reid said in a release Monday.

“In order to continue flattening the curve, we felt it was best to make the difficult decision to postpone the event.”

REAL’s decision comes in the wake of the Saskatchewan government’s announcement Thursday of a plan for a phased-in reopening of various services that had been shut down in the pandemic.

The province said certain services such as dentistry, optometry and physiotherapy and “low-risk” activities such as golf, fishing and boating may resume effective May 4, in the first phase of a five-phase re-opening plan.

However, the province’s plan does not allow for resumption of public or private gatherings of more than 30 people until phase five — and no hard date has yet been set for any of phases three through five.

At 365 confirmed cases as of Monday afternoon, including 288 recoveries, Saskatchewan has the fifth-lowest COVID-19 load of Canada’s provinces. Of those 365 cases, 74 were in the Regina area.

Canada’s Farm Show, which dates back to 1978, bills itself as drawing over 30,000 visitors annually from over 50 countries, and “covering over 1.9 million square feet of space with everything from the latest in equipment and software technology to industry-leading keynote speakers and lifestyle products.”

REAL’s decision follows the cancellations or postponements last week of other major Prairie fairs and events including the Calgary Stampede, K-Days and the Manitoba Stampede and Exhibition. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Regina Exhibition Association Ltd. (REAL) announced Monday that Canada’s Farm Progress Show, running June 16 to 18 next year at Regina’s Evraz Place, will now be titled Canada’s Farm Show, with a “new visual identity.”

“With the increase of global food demand on the horizon coupled with new competition in the market now is the time for Canada’s Farm Show to redefine the show’s value proposition for the future,” REAL CEO Tim Reid said in a release. “Farming is adapting and changing; farm shows need to do the same.”

The event, which began in 1978, was known as the Western Canada Farm Progress Show until 2012, when it became Canada’s Farm Progress Show.

The rebranding comes with a series of other major changes, including moving indoors, “showcasing the world-class infrastructure” of Evraz Place, which bills itself as Canada’s largest interconnected event complex.

The 2020 show will also include a new ticketing system in which one $15 ticket “grants you access to all three days of the show.” Children age 12 and under are admitted free of charge.

Glencore Agriculture’s Viterra arm, which has been the show’s presenting sponsor since 2008, announced Monday it would further extend that role with a three-year sponsorship contract. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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To be sure, several smaller companies remain in the game — but with marriages now consummated for Dow Chemical and DuPont, and for Syngenta and ChemChina, Bayer’s pending takeover of Monsanto and, now, BASF getting set to buy Bayer Crop Science assets, Canada may soon see only four big players in pesticide and seeds.

BASF’s Canadian business director, Ron Kehler, spoke to Canadian farm media Tuesday about that company’s deal to buy seed and herbicide businesses from Bayer.

Asked about competition in the seed and chemical sectors, Kehler said the increased costs of stricter environmental regulations, trait development and finding new modes of action are raising the bar as to who can be a significant player.

“The price to play, or to be in this business, continues to go up,” he said.

For 5.9 billion euros (C$8.7 billion), BASF will get Bayer’s traits and breeding for soybeans, cotton and canola, and, significantly, its Liberty (glufosinate ammonium) herbicide business and LibertyLink and InVigor traits.

The deal also gives BASF Bayer’s seed processing facility in Lethbridge, chemical formulation and distribution facilities in Regina and a seed breeding centre in Saskatoon.

Along with those existing products, BASF has purchased Bayer’s research and development pipeline — including, Kehler said, “more than 250 patent families.”

With this purchase, 1,800 Bayer employees from commercial R+D, breeding and production — of whom 300 are within scope in Canada — will transfer to BASF.

Bayer is divesting these assets in the context of its acquisition of Monsanto.

Kehler described Bayer’s development of LiberyLink technology as “an amazing business story,” currently growing by about 14 per cent per year.

BASF’s purchase of Bayer’s LibertyLink canola, soybean and cotton portolio, he said, will be “highly complementary” to BASF’s existing product portfolio. Many of the large agricultural chemical companies are also now in the seed business.

New to the seed business, BASF plans to use the newly-acquired LibertyLink varieties to “deliver more tools to support growers,” Kehler said.

Having a wider range of products to offer will give BASF staff more opportunities to connect with customers over the course of the crop year, and “partner with farmers in new ways.”

Although the purchase of Liberty, a Group 10 herbicide, will also be a valuable asset for BASF, “we want to offer new solutions for herbicide-resistant management by using glufosinate ammonium as an attractive mixing partner,” Kehler said.

Rotating chemical groups and using tank mixes as part of an integrated weed management program can help to slow the development of herbicide resistance in weeds.

BASF will also continue to build on the seed trait development it’s done in the past.

“We’re now able to fund more work in traits and continue to do the work that we’re doing on herbicide development, which is an area of key important to our research,” Kehler said.

Until the deal closes, Kehler said it will be “business as usual” for farmers dealing with BASF or Bayer.

The sale is conditional on Bayer closing its deal to buy Monsanto, which the German company has said it hopes to do early next year.

— Leeann Minogue is editor of Grainews at Griffin, Sask. Includes files from Maggie Van Camp of Country Guide at Blackstock, Ont.

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