On December 17, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) confirmed a case of an atypical bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in an eight-and-a-half-year-old beef cow on a farm in Alberta. On December 21, South Korea announced it would be restricting Canadian beef imports due to the case. Dennis Laycraft, executive vice-president of the Canadian Cattlemen's Association... Read More

The Canola Council of Canada (CCC) has secured over $1.8 million in funding through the federal AgriMarketing Program to fund market access and development activities. The funding, under the Canadian Agricultural Partnership (CAP), will be combined with contributions from the canola industry for a total of $3.6 million over the next two years to work... Read More

The Dairy Direct Payment Program is set to begin sending out a total of $469 million to dairy producers across Canada. The program is a $1.75 billion compensation package for dairy producers for market access concessions made under the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific... Read More

Former federal Agriculture Minister Bob Speller has passed away at the age of 66. Speller (above left) was named Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food by Prime Minister Paul Martin in December 2003, during the Canadian cattle industry's BSE crisis. He passed away on Dec. 16 at a care facility near Waterford, Ontario, following an illness.... Read More

John Deere has made a move toward deploying more electric battery power in its machines with the acquisition of Austrian battery company Kreisel Electric. Financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed, but Deere has signed an agreement to acquire majority ownership of the company that makes high-density, immersion-cooled electric batteries and the related... Read More

Farmers Edge has announced the creation of DigiAg Risk Management Inc., a subsidiary of Farmers Edge. This new unit will provide farmers across Canada with parametric insurance products, risk transfer solutions, and group benefits, the company says. DigiAg is the sole managing general agency (MGA) with access to proprietary, field-centric datasets coming directly from broadacre... Read More

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has issued mandate letters to his ministers, outlining the Liberal government's priorities for the session of Parliament that started last month. The letters were made public on Thursday (Dec. 16), 51 days after the cabinet was sworn in, and the second last day of sitting in the House of Commons before... Read More