Ag News

As the year draws to a close we've started seeing an increase in grain movement.

David Przednowek, the assistant vice president of grain for CN Rail,  says for the last number of weeks grain movement has been slow.

"So a lot of capacity got left on the table, unfortunately. What we've seen since then is a bit of an uptick in demand for grain movement over the past couple of weeks grain shipping week 19 which was the week of December 3rd, we moved  just over 570,000 tonnes that compared to 500,000 tonnes the previous week."

Quorum Corporation, the federal grain monitor for prairie grain handling and transportation, has been studying the costs associated with moving grain to the East Coast versus the West Coast.

Quorum's Mark Hemmes says the majority of grain destined for export - about 75 per cent - moved out of the West Coast Port facilities while about 11 million metric tonnes of grain moves through Eastern Canada each year.

McDonald’s Canada has become the very first Platinum Partner of the Canadian Cattle Young Leaders (CYL) Program. 

McDonald’s has been a Foundation Partner since 2017 and their support of the program exceeds their financial contributions. 

Their support has ranged from participating as mentors to CYL  participants, collaborating on workshops and tours, and helping with the judging process for selecting program participants.

Ottawa and the Province are opening up $1 million in AgriRecovery support to help Saskatchewan beekeepers rebuild their colonies.

The funding is being made available for commercial beekeepers that suffered abnormally high colony losses of over 30 per cent  in 2022.

Federal Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay says bees play a vital role in pollinating so many of our crops, and are integral to the success of our Canadian agricultural system.

On average, Saskatchewan is home to about 100,000 colonies, which produce almost 20 million pounds of honey each year. 

Alberta's water supply has mostly relied on melting snow and rain.

But two out of the last three years saw Alberta dealing with drought conditions. 

This year has been particularly dry, due to mountain snow depleting earlier than normal in the spring and a lack of rain over the summer, which caused parts of Alberta to experience drought.

This autumn saw no relief for the parched, with continued lower than average precipitation levels.

Diamond Valley and Okotoks were no exceptions.

The Manitoba Farmer Wellness Program is designed to help bridge the gap to mental health services for the agriculture industry.

The program launched in the fall of 2021 helps provide six, one on one counselling sessions free of charge for farmers and their families with professional counselors who have a background in agriculture.

Chair Marcel Hacault says starting January 1st the program will also be available to farm workers.

Farmers in southern Saskatchewan are becoming concerned about the lack of snow so far this winter.

That was one of the topics discussed on Tuesday at an informational meeting hosted by McDougall Acres Ltd. at the Cosmo Centre. About 150 farmers attended the meeting, which was a chance to connect producers and customers in addition to providing information on relevant topics. The event attracted producers from across the province and into Montana.

Ken McDougall described the mood in the room as cautiously optimistic heading into the 2024 growing season.

This week during the COP 28 meetings Canada's Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault announced the publication of its fourth draft protocol on reducing enteric methane emissions (REME) from beef cattle operations.

Environment and Climate Change Canada issued a press release outlining the basics of the REME Protocol encouraging producers to make changes that would reduce the methane released when cattle burp.

The protocol suggests producers could look at improving animal diets, management, and other strategies that support more efficient animal growth. 

Another change to Bill C-234  passed through the Senate this week. 

A previous amendment removed barns and greenhouses from the exemption.

The second amendment was introduced by Senator Yen Pau Woo late last week.

The amendment would shorten the sunset clause on the carbon price exemption in Bill C 234 from eight years to three years saying it would align with the deadline for the Liberal's carbon price exemption on heating oil.

Voting on that amendment took place earlier this week with Senators voting 44 - 40 in favor of the change.

Statistics Canada has released its Potato Production Report for 2023.

Manitoba producers seeded 81,000 acres of potatoes and harvested 80,000 acres for an average yield of 372 hundredweight per harvested acre.

In Saskatchewan, producers seeded 7300 acres with 7200 acres harvested for an average yield of 247 hundredweight per harvested acre.
 
Alberta growers seeded 80,100 acres and harvested 76,440 with an average yield of 419 hundredweight per harvested acre.