Cory Knutt

The Bank of Canada (BOC) raised its benchmark interest rate by 50 basis points to 3.75 per cent Wednesday morning, in an effort to combat high inflation.

Aaron Ruston, president and CEO of Purposed Financial in Moose Jaw, says the increase wasn't as high as many analysts were predicting.

Saskatchewan experienced an increase in tornado activity this year. 

Terri Lang, a meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, says there were 25 tornadoes investigated with an additional two still waiting to be confirmed. The average number of tornadoes per year in Saskatchewan is around 14 or 15. 

Lang notes most of the tornado activity this year was in the northwestern part of the province. 

The outlook for food and beverage processors remains positive amid economic conditions that have shifted from the start of the year, according to the Food and Beverage Report mid-year update from Farm Credit Canada (FCC).

Year-over-year sales growth is expected to slow in the second half of the year to six per cent from 12 per cent in the first half, finishing the year at nine per cent. 

There's been a bit of a surge in forward hog contract prices.

That from Tyler Fulton, director of risk management with Hams Marketing Services.

One of the biggest ATV/UTV derbies in Canada was held on Saturday in St. Jean.

Despite the muddy conditions, the 19th annual event attracted 740 machines and 365 riders. The mud bog racing on Friday attracted over 60 entries including a kids division.

Organizer Sandra Fillion says they're still tallying up the totals, but on a good year the event can raise $50,000 for the community.

There has been an increasing number of cases of avian influenza across Western Canada.

According to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), as of September 14th, there are 19 infected premises in Alberta, 9 in BC, 8 in Saskatchewan, and 3 in Manitoba. Nearly 1.5 million birds have been impacted in those four provinces over the course of the outbreak. 

Ontario currently has 8 infected premises.

Lisa Bishop-Spencer is director of brand and communications for Chicken Farmers of Canada.

The Morris and District Centennial Museum unveiled its new stained-glass exhibit on Friday, September 16th. 

A monument was unveiled Saturday in Emerson to honour men of Ukrainian and Eastern European descent who were arrested and held in internment camps during the First World War. 

The men, who were labelled as enemy aliens, were travelling to the U.S. in search of employment. 

Statistics Canada released its August crop production estimate on Wednesday.

In 2022, Canadian farmers are projected to produce more wheat, canola, barley, oats, soybeans and corn for grain than they did in 2021, according to the most recent yield model estimates using satellite imagery and agroclimatic data.

Neil Townsend is chief market analyst with FarmLink Marketing Solutions.

Farmers in the Red River Valley have been taking advantage of the great harvesting weather.

Morris-area farmer David Hamblin says the harvest has been going good so far.

"We had a real struggle to the start of the harvest with wet weather and humidity every day and Mother Nature has cooperated the last two weeks and given us some really nice conditions to get started," he said. "We've got our early wheat and canola off. About half of our land was flooded by the Red River so we're done our early seeded stuff and waiting for the later flood land here now."