Western Canadian farm groups are generally welcoming the increased competition that should result from turning the (incapacitated?) Canadian Wheat Board into a private grain company controlled by Bunge and a Saudi investment company, but producer groups are still seeking answers about the farmer ownership part of the deal. The agreement announced this week will see farmers owning 49.9 percent… Read More
Category: News
CN Rail on Thursday announced a multi-year program to spend around $500 million to improve its feeder rail lines in Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. A news release from the company does not mention grain, but indicates the upgrades will occur on lines “handling rising volumes of industrial products, natural resources and energy-related commodities.” Approximately $100 million… Read More
From Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz discussing the sale of the Canadian Wheat Board to Wheat Pete on late seeding in southern Ontario, catch up on what’s happened this week with the latest TWORA podcast: Stay current on what’s happening in Canadian agriculture — listen to the “This Week on Real Ag” podcast every Thursday. Find the… Read More
Less than three years after the end of the Canadian Wheat Board’s single desk, the CWB is on the verge of becoming a private grain company controlled by a joint venture between global grain business Bunge and the Saudi Agricultural and Livestock Investment Company — the Saudi Arabian government’s primary agricultural investment arm. The new alliance known… Read More
Update on July 31, 2015: G3 Global Grain Group today announced the successful close of its deal to acquire a majority stake in CWB. CWB will be combined with the grain assets of Bunge Canada to form G3 Canada Limited. Ian White, CWB President and CEO, said he is “gratified” with the outcome of the CWB… Read More
The Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Crops (CRSC) took a “giant leap forward” today with an announced $1.077 million for the CRSC’s work to establish metrics on sustainable crop production. Gerry Ritz, the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, was on hand at the Canadian Global Crops Symposium in Saskatoon today to make the funding announcement. “Consumers… Read More
Announced at the Advancing Women in Agriculture event in Calgary earlier this month, the Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council (CAHRC) is launching a research project called Supporting the Advancement of Women in Agriculture (SAWA). The federally-funded study will examine and address critical barriers to advancement that women face in the agricultural industry. “It’s going to be… Read More
With five Canadian teams headed to the playoffs, the 2014-15 season has been an exciting one for Canadian hockey fans (apologies to Edmonton and Toronto fans), including the 360 people who participated in the inaugural RealAg Hockey Pool. With the regular season ending this weekend, we have a winner that needs crowning, but first, some other hockey news to share: 2015… Read More
As expected with lower crop prices, new data from Farm Credit Canada shows the red-hot market for farmland cooled off in 2014. According to FCC’s annual Farmland Values Report released April 13th, the average value of agricultural land in Canada rose by 14.3 percent in 2014 — down from an increase of 22.1 percent in 2013 and a… Read More
Update — April 12th, 2015: The Canadian Food Inspection Agency on April 12th announced that a 10km radius control zone has been established around the single farm where H5N2 avian influenza was confirmed last week. 29 poultry farms within this zone are now under quarantine, although so far, the virus has only been found at the infected… Read More