The organizing Committee is delighted to announce that Dr. Roberta Bondar will deliver the conference’s keynote address at the banquet on March 3, 2010. Dr. Bondar has had many careers from scientist, physician, astronaut, photographer and author to entrepreneur. She is ideally suited to deliver the keynote address at the First North…
The backbone of many Canadian agriculture commodities is trade. It's what has allowed several sectors to expand and has given us our reputation as a global… Continue
THREE OUTSTANDING LEADERS SELECTED FOR INDUCTION INTO THE ONTARIO AGRICULTURAL HALL OF FAME
From the Ontario Agriculture Hall of Fame.
Milton. In its thirty-first year, the Ontario Agricultural Hall of Fame Association will induct three leaders into the Hall of Fame Gallery at Country Heritage Park in Milton on Sunday June 13, 2010. To qualify for this prestigious recognition, Inductees must have demonstrated visionary leadership, innovation and entrepreneurship in the… Continue
Added by Joe Dales on February 2, 2010 at 3:53am —
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Monday, January 18, 2010, was a night for small victories for the Farmers of the Holland Marsh, the citizens of King Township, and the people of Ontario!
This was the night our Township Council voted, unanimously, in favour of an interim control by-law. Basically, if upheld by the OMB, it halts the building of the power plant slated to be imposed in the Greenbelt, on agricultural land in the Holland Marsh. This will allow Township staff the… Continue
Shaun Haney spoke to John Gillespie, Chairman of the Beef Information Center about what he thinks the he and the Beef Information Center accomplished at the NCBA. John is a farmer from Ontario who has committed an immense amount of time to serving the beef industry in… Continue
Added by Joe Dales on January 30, 2010 at 7:52am —
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Alumbaugh: Oh the Irony!
By JoAnn Alumbaugh, Farms.com
Last week, Gilbert Arenas, the pro Washington Wizards basketball player, was suspended indefinitely for bringing guns into the Wizards’ locker room and for inappropriate behavior preceding a game, when he mockingly “shot” at teammates. It happened last Wednesday, January 6, which coincidentally, was the player’s 28th birthday.
But, now here’s one for the record books: The very next day after his suspension, Arenas… Continue
Added by OntAG Admin on January 19, 2010 at 3:33am —
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TORONTO, Jan. 14 /CNW/ - The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Trees Ontario, along with its partners, the Ontario Forestry Association (OFA) and local planting agencies will host seven free workshops to educate local area landowners on the resources and incentives available to plant trees on their properties.
Everyone can take part in supporting tree planting in Ontario. The workshops give landowners the opportunity to learn about tree planting techniques, financial… Continue
Added by OntAG Admin on January 14, 2010 at 11:39am —
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Last night was a tremendous night for the Farmers of the Holland Marsh, and the citizens of King Township. We are fortunate to have so many astute individuals willing to take up this cause, and do battle with the Ontario government! As one Councillor put it "I never would have thought we would ever have to deal with the building of a power plant in the Holland Marsh"--yah, no kidding! A hydrological study has been done, independently, which does not favour the peaker plant builder's position,… Continue
By Heather Travis Westerr News
Thursday, January 7, 2010
In a few years, a herd of Holstein cows might be powering the village of Ilderton. This is not so far-fetched, as a locally owned farm has begun turning manure into an energy resource with the help of university researchers.
In 2006, the urban sprawl of London, Ont. forced the Stanton… Continue
Added by AgOntario on January 8, 2010 at 6:00am —
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My name is Avia Eek. My husband, Bill, and I farm in the Holland Marsh. My husband, and many of the farmers in the Holland Marsh are descendants of the first pioneers who broke this land in 1934. Although, it should be noted the first industry here was the harvesting of the marsh grass for mattresses. This business took place from 1880 to approx. 1915, when it peaked.
The soil in the Holland Marsh is organic based, the result of… Continue
I'm a young farmer. I can say that now - especially since just a couple of weeks ago we moved out to one of our family farms. This is a house my great-grandfather built in the early 1900's, and is the farm where the dry cows and heifers are kept. My mom and dad are a few kilometres away at the farm I grew up in - where the milking cows are.
As I get settled on the farm, I thought I'd share some of my experiences. Along the way I'd invite any and all pieces of advice I can get - as I… Continue
Strong Ontario food and beverage processors – particularly those located in communities that have been hardhit by the recent economic downturn – are encouraged to apply to the Southern Ontario Development Program (SODP). SODP’s food and beverage initiative includes a $20 million fund of federal interest-free loans for upgrades, expansions, or modernization of commercial food and beverage production facilities, or fund a strategy to access new markets.
By: Synthesis Agri-Food Insights
November 24, 2009 Volume 1, Issue 7
Helping you understand agriculture's challenges and opportunities by analyzing the issues and sharing their insights -the Synthesis consulting team Rob Hannam, Mary Lou McCutcheon, Julien DenTandt, Peter Hannam and Heidi Dancho. www.synthesis-network.com
The war for talent.
Recruiting and retaining talent has always… Continue
Despite the fact that many corn producers have yet to finish corn harvest, the corn seed sales season for 2010 has officially begun.
If you are like me, there is something a bit disconcerting about sales calls hunting seed orders for next year when I am so far behind on this year’s harvest. My thought process is, let me get the crop off, consider the performance of this year’s seed choices, and then we’ll talk about next… Continue
Soybean yields in North America have been stalled over the past 20 years as pests like aphids and Soybean Cyst Nematodes take hold. When farmers plant certified seed it allows seed companies to put profits back into research and development. Companies like Syngenta, Monsanto and Dupont are spending millions of dollars a day in research and development. With these investments by the seed industry we may finally see the soybean yield trends going in the same positive direction as the corn yield… Continue
Added by John Beardsley on November 10, 2009 at 12:47pm —
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Minister Goodyear announces investment to support Ontario’s food and beverage processors
The Honourable Gary Goodyear, Minister of State for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario) announced a $20 million investment today in Guelph that will allow food and beverage processors operating in Southern Ontario access to funds to expand, modernize, innovate and/or improve their competitiveness.
This was written by Matt Hardecke from the Young Producers' Council, which is part of the US based National Cattlemen's Beef Association. It's an interesting perspective...
As the future leaders of American agriculture and the beef industry, we need to not only know the facts but understand the thought process of our consumers. I am looking to buy a new flat screen TV. Over the weekend I went to Best Buy to gaze at the selections of options for my view pleasure. For an hour I stood… Continue
Warning: Real potato farmers should stop reading here. This might ruin your week. A San Francisco-based company just cleared $830,000 US in two weeks by selling seed potatoes. The potatoes are virtual but the money is very, very real. Zynga is a developer of apps for Facebook and the iPhone. One of their biggest hits is... get this... a game about farming. Farmville lets users own and manage a virtual farm. Apparently it's very addictive. At least, the 20 million users who are currently playing… Continue
At the Global Institute for Food Security (GIFS) at the University of Saskatchewan (USask), ambition meets action. Across our diverse operations, our team has developed unique capabilities to support impactful research and development. From genomics to biomanufacturing to data analytics and more, our strengths place us among a select group of global institutions equipped to drive innovation at scale. Today, we are the only organization in Canada with the expertise, capabilities, and unique model to enable partnerships with both public- and private-sector organizations from discovery through to delivery, accelerating innovation at every stage. Based in Saskatchewan — the heart of Western Canada and the largest producer of field crops in Canada — we’re strategically positioned to collaborate with global partners and deliver scalable, impactful solutions. “Our ambition is to be the preferred partner for ag and food innovation — not just here, but globally — and we are global. We’re b
Producers made solid harvest progress on remaining crop acres and got plenty of other field work done last week, before rain and snowfall on the weekend halted operations in many areas. Producers are hoping to get back in the field prior to winter to harvest the few remaining crop acres and finish field work. Provincially, harvest is 98 per cent complete. Most crop is off in the west-central and northeast regions as progress sits at 99 per cent, followed by the southeast and northwest at 98 per cent and the southwest and east-central at 97 per cent. Although most producers have finished harvest, some have a small amount of oilseed, chickpea and canary seed crops remaining in the field. For oilseed crops, canola is 98 per cent harvested, mustard is 95 per cent, flax is 87 per cent and soybeans are 83 per cent harvested. For the other small acreage crops, canary seed is 92 per cent harvested and chickpeas are 88 per cent harvested. All other pulse, spring cereal and winter cereal cro
Week 10 saw system performance improve slightly for a fifth consecutive week with CN and CPKC Rail combined supplying 93% of hopper cars ordered, an improvement from the 92% order fulfillment performance seen in week 9. System performance remains above the 90% threshold for the second consecutive week. That's according to the Ag Transport Coalition. In supplying 96% of cars ordered by shippers in week 10, CN saw performance improve from the 92% order fulfillment performance in week 9. CN performance has now been above the 90% threshold for two straight weeks having improved performance for five straight weeks. CPKC saw performance decline slightly, with the railway supplying 91% of cars ordered by shippers, down slightly from the 93% order fulfillment performance seen in week 9. CPKC remains above the 90% performance threshold for a second straight week.
Updated supply/demand estimates from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, released Oct. 17, included only minor adjustments to the balance sheets for the country’s major grains and oilseeds. Projected 2025/26 ending stocks for wheat and canola were left unchanged from the September report, at 5.2 million and 2.5 million tonnes respectively. That would compare with wheat ending stocks in 2024/25 of 4.112 million and canola carryout of 1.597 million tonnes. The projected usage numbers for canola were left unchanged, with exports forecast at 7 million tonnes and domestic usage at 12.226 million tonnes. If realized, exports would be down by 25 per cent from 2024/25, while domestic usage would increase by 4.8 per cent. Projected wheat exports were raised to 27.4 million tonnes, from 27 million in September. However, that would still be down by 6.2 per cent from 2024/25. Wheat domestic usage was down by 400,000 tonnes from September, at 8.241 million tonnes. That compares with 7.96
Alberta’s crop harvest is virtually complete, but crop quality is a concern as the growing season comes to a close. The province’s agriculture department reported 99.4 per cent of Alberta’s major crops were combined as of Oct. 14, 3.1 points more than in the previous week, compared to the five-year average of 97 per cent and the 10-year average of 83 per cent. The northwest region’s harvest was 100 per cent complete, while the central region was at 98.9 per cent. All other regions were within one point of finishing operations. The harvests for all major crops were either completion or less than a point away from completion, except for canola at 98.5 per cent. Despite recent rain and snowfall in some areas, the added moisture wasn’t enough to improve fall-seeded crop quality province-wide.