Ag News

 Innovation, Science and Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne, announced $150 million in renewed funding for Protein Industries Canada.

The funding is part of the $750 million investment into the Global Innovation Cluster program which was announced in the 2022 budget.  

CEO Bill Greuel says the renewed investment of $150 Million into Protein Industries Canada will support continued innovation, scale-up of companies and the commercialization of new products in Canada’s plant-based food, feed and ingredient sector.

Agriculture Minister David Marit is leading a trade delegation to India and the United Arab Emirates.

As part of the trip, Marit will attend the Pulses Conclave in Mumbai, India and the Gulfood Exhibition in Dubai.

The overall goal is to gain a better understanding of international stakeholders' current and future needs, promote the sustainability of Saskatchewan's crop production and strengthen trade, research and investment ties with some of our long-standing partners.

A major fire on Sunday destroyed a large hog barn in Saskatchewan.
 
The barn owned by Olymel was in the Sturgis area.

Casey Smit, Olymel's Vice-President of Production says no employees were injured, however they lost about 10,000 pigs in the fire.

"It's part of a production flow so there would have been young pigs and older pigs throughout the barn."

A second barn and a feed mill about half a kilometre away were not damaged.

Fire inspectors were on the scene yesterday to try and determine the cause of the blaze.
 

Friday was the final day for farmers to file nomination papers for the SaskSoil board.

Eligible producers must be SaskSoil members.

The board has a maximum of eleven directors, with four vacant positions.

Voting on the board candidates (if required) will take place at the Soil Health Conference and AGM.

"Good Soil Makes Good Food" is the theme for this week's event which runs February 14th and 15th at Delta Hotels in Regina.

CN Rail is reporting strong movement for grain and processed grain products in the last few weeks.

The railway shipped over 650 thousand metric tonnes of grain and processed grain products for crop week 27.

David Przednowek, CN's Assistant Vice-President of Grain notes it was a solid week despite some terminal issues.

According to the weekly report several elevators in the Prairies experienced loading delays due to snow accumulation, mechanical issues, or track issues. 

The Canadian Federation of Agriculture (CFA) has calculated that by Thursday, February 9th, 2023, a Canadian household of average income will have earned enough to pay for their entire year’s grocery bill.

Each year, CFA examines the proportion of income that Canadians spend on food as a way to explore year-over-year expenditure changes and raise consumers’ understanding of Canada’s food system, from Farm-Gate-to-Plate.

Saskatchewan's agri-food exports reached a total value of $18.4 billion, the second highest in Canada.

Agriculture Minister David Marit says these numbers demonstrate our progress toward the $20 billion agri-food export target in the 2030 Growth Plan.
 
Overall, agri-food exports account for 35 per cent of the province’s total exports of more than $52.4 billion.

A farmer from central Alberta is the winner of SeedMaster's 160 acres of Gold Giveaway.

Ken Krwyko of Sturgeon County and his sons Dan and Brad run a fourth-generation farm growing oilseeds, cereals, wheat and barley on 3300 acres of cropland.

He's very excited about the win and working with SeedMaster, this will be his first experience using SeedMaster equipment.

"You’re always learning as a producer, so I’m looking forward to learning through this experience about how to grow a crop with SeedMaster."

The Alberta Government is introducing a new agri-processing tax credit that they hope will help attract large-scale investments and diversity to help create jobs for many Albertans. 

As Canada and North America are looking to capitalize on the potential of the agri-processing industry, Alberta hopes to build on province specific advantages it has when it comes to the agriculture industry by launching this new tax credit program in the spring of 2023. 

Alberta is introducing a new agri-processing tax credit that will create jobs, diversify the economy and ensure producers have a competitive market for their goods.

Nate Horner the minister of agriculture and irrigation made the announcement at Harmony Beef on Wednesday.