Canada is warmer by one to three degrees than in the mid-1800s, so the federal government has updated plant hardiness zone maps.
They are designed for gardeners, not farmers, the creators caution, yet the report said “these changes have significant implications for plant growth and survival across the country.”
It contains updated maps with new plant hardiness zones for Canada’s different regions.
The Purdue University/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer Index fell 10 points to 125.
Farmers were “markedly less optimism about the future” with the index of future expectations declining by 16 points to 123, which is the lowest since last September.
Crop specialists were pessimistic, but livestock farmers, led by beef producers riding a wave of high prices and record-setting profits, were optimistic.
The Short-Term Farmland Value Expectations Index reading of 112 dropped three points from July, continuing a three-month trend.
But any reading higher than 100 indicates that more farmers still expect rising values in the coming year than those who consider declining values as more likely.
Three-quarters of crop producers expect farmland cash rental rates in to remain unchanged next year; only 12 per cent felt rents will go lower.
Saputo Inc. of Montreal has ranked 10th of the world’s largest dairy companies as measured by Rabobank’s research division.
Saputo’s sales were $12.8 billion US last year.
The largest companies are Lactalis at $30.21 billion, Nestle at $24.1 and Dairy Farmers of America at $21.7 billion US, all measured in U.S. dollars.
An appeals court in Washington has ruled that all of the tariffs United States President Donald Trump imposed because he declared a national emergency are illegal.
But Trump immediately said he will file an appeal to the Supreme Court where a majority of the justices have made rulings in favour of Trump.
The tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum are not included in the appeal court decision because they were imposed under the Trade Expansion Act.
The 7-4 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit will not take effect until October.
Richardson International Ltd. is buying three pasta-making plants in the United States from Food and Provisions Inc.
The three are in North Dakota, Minnesota and Virginia.
Richardson president and chief executive officer Darwin Sobkow said “it will allow the company to further integrate a core strength of the business: durum wheat.”
Hartley Richardson’s son Thor was appointed president in early August, setting up the eighth-generation family member as the likeliest successor when his father, who had held the post since 1993, retires.
It sold some of its products in Canada and the United States.
“Vegan Finest Foods no longer exists, but our values and our vision will never be lost,” founder Rosella D'Angeli wrote on social media.
“I believe that knowledge and experience are meant to be shared. I look forward to using this for new challenges.”
Two of its most popular products are seafood competitor Vegan Zeastar and meat competitor Beastie Plants.
It said moving that business to the United States will improve its supply chain.
Its whiskey will continue to be made in Canada, it said, and it will retain bottling plants at Gimli, Man., and Quebec.
The union representing about 200 workers and the local Chamber of Commerce called the news “devastating”.
Two of the largest farm equipment manufacturers – Deere and Co. and CNH Industrial – took a hit on sales and profits during their most recent quarters, but both did better than stock market analysts predicted.
“Tariff uncertainty and deflated commodity prices have made farmers increasingly cautious in spending decisions and more hesitant to accept higher machinery prices,” said research analyst Jonathan Sakraida.
Despite the gloomy demand environment, Deere CEO John May said the company was able to manage its inventory levels to help production match retail demand.
Deere’s net income in the third quarter came in at $1.29 billion ($1.78 billion Cdn), compared with $1.73 billion last year.
The company’s net sales fell about nine per cent to $10.36 billion ($14.29 billion) Cdn from a year ago, more than analysts’ estimates of $10.31 billion.
CNH reported net income of $217 million and compared with $404 last year and sales declined by 14 per cent to $4.7 billion.
Ventor Inc. is proposing to build 40 wind turbines near Strathroy and said the venture will probably contribute $1 million a year to municipal coffers.
Residents of Brooke-Alvinston have been invited to the Brooke-Alvinston-Inwood Community Complex to have their say about the Strathroy Wind Development project.
have their say on Thursday on the proposed Strathroy Wind Development project.
Premier Doug Ford cancelled 750 projects after winning election, but last August reversed course and said the province wants to more than double its purchase of electricity from renewable energy projects.
But unlike the previous Liberal government, he is giving municipalities a say on proposals.
Venfor Inc., controlled by Peter Budd, wants to build up to 40 turbines, split between the municipality and neighbouring Adelaide Metcalfe and said that would add about 30 megawatts to the grid. He said on peak summer days, Ontario is short of 2,000 to 3,000 megawatts and imports from the United States.
He said it will likely take until 2027 to jump through administrative and planning hoops and then another three years to complete construction.
Ten more products that contain pistachios are on recall because the nuts may be contaminated with salmonella.
The latest in a series of pistachio recalls sold from two Bank Street stores in downtown Ottawa.
The CFIA said there have been no reports of illnesses from people who consumed the halva.
Halva is a traditional Greek dessert made from a thick paste made from flour, butter, oil, saffron, rosewater, milk, turmeric powder, and sugar.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency levied $878,700 worth of penalties in the first half of the year.
Ontario’s penalties amounted to $121,300 of which 15 totaling $71,300 were for violations of the Health of Animals Act and regulations and 10 penalties totaling $50,000 were for violations of the Safe Foods Canada Act and regulations.
Quebec had by far the most fines – 65 for $402,400.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has suspended the licence held by a numbered company which does business as Ferme Floralpe.
The negotiations also involve South America’s Mercosur bloc so would include Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.
Canadian officials previously outlined interests in expanding and diversifying its trade partner roster in light of the uncertainty sparked by Ubited States President Donald Trump’s global tariff plan.
Trade Minister Maninder Sidhu is expected to arrive in Brasilia this week to discuss potential trade agreements, according to trade officials from both nations.
Similar talks were stalled in 2021 as South American nations opted to focus on local issues versus opportunities for new trade pacts.
Revived trade talks could begin later this fall, according to several published reports from Canadian and Brazilian diplomatic officials.
Brazil is the world’s largest chicken exporter and already is Canada’s second-largest supplier of chicken after the United States.
Rosemarie Montgomery of Chatham has been appointed to a three-year term on the Rural Ontario Economic Advisory Panel.
The panel makes recommendations to the minister of agriculture over applications for funding.
She is the economic development officer for Chatham-Kent.
Statistics Canada reported that cattle numbers increased for the first time since 2021 in July.
Beef cow numbers were up by four-tenths of one per cent and heifers kept for breeding by half of one per cent.
There were half of one per cent more dairy heifers and four-tenths of one per cent more dairy cows, both increases the same as beef.
The total Canadian cattle herd stood at 11.9 million, eight-tenths of one per cent more than a year ago.
The numbers hold true with the long-term beef cycle which is four years from the top to bottom of numbers and then four years from bottom to top. Prices take a reverse roller-coaster ride.
Hog numbers were down by 1.3 per cent this July. Total hog slaughter increased by 3.3 per cent to 11.6 million between January and July.
The new 50 per cent United States tariffs on Canadian products that contain steel and aluminum are being applied to many pieces of farm machinery.
They do not apply to machinery made in the United States and being returned there.
Canadian-made machinery deemed compliant with the Canada-U.S-Mexico free trade agreement are also exempt.
But a tractor made in Europe or Asia would be hit by the tariffs.
For example, Mike Hahn of Hahn Farm Equipment said a $50,000 CIH 5240 would be taxed $7,500 because they are made in Germany.
The $7.500 tariff must be paid by the Canadian exporter who would presumably add it to the purchaser’s price.
Hahn said “in our experience so far . . . (that) prevents the sale.
“The sad thing about these tariffs is that the end user is the person that loses. The middle-class working people pay more and the poorly-run governments and the rich people that control it make millions, NO WAIT BILLIONS !!!!” he wrote in an e-mail.
“The new steel tariffs and for that matter all tariffs are raising the price of all NEW products being sold. Especially to the farming industry which is facing underpriced commodities.”
A combine that a custom operator in Calumet, Oklahoma bought used from a farmer in Saskatchwan can’t be delivered until a complex calculation on its steel content is completed.
That’s because the Trump administration expanded its 50 per cent tariff on Canadian steel to steel content in products such as stoves, refrigerators and, yes, also tractors and combines.
Ryan Sorrels said he needs the New Holland combine made in Belgium, to finish up harvest for his customers, and he only uses walker combines because he doesn’t have time to swap concaves between jobs. He cannot use a rotor-based combine, he emphatically states multiple times in his social media post.
Sorrell is cautioning others to be careful when buying Canadian farm equipment.
Sausage maker Marini Foods Ltd. of North York is out of business because the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has suspended its licence for failure to meet food safety standards.
The company markets sausages under the Marini, Rea and Bona brand names.
Its Italian salami and prosciutto are distributed to all of Canada’s major supermarkets.
It can resume operations when the Canadian Food Inspection Agency is satisfied that it is in compliance with its regulations.
Another company that baked pistachios into its products has been hit with a recall because of potential salmonella contamination.
Public Health Canada said on its website that so far 62 consumers have fallen sick after eating products with pistachios.
The new recall is nine kinds of baclavas and one Knafeh Ashta made by Andolas bakery of Saint-Laurent, Que.
Fortune magazine ranks the 500 biggest companies by billions of dollars in sales, and this is the 2024 list for agriculture:
· #50 Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) – $85B
· #65 Merck – $65B
· #72 Nationwide – $59B
· #85 Tyson Foods – $53B
· #89 John Deere – $52B
· #115 CHS – $39B
· #246 Corteva Agriscience – $17B
· #262 Land O’Lakes – $16B
· #296 Tractor Supply Co. – $15B
· #364 AGCO – $14B
· #378 The Andersons – $11B
· #381 Mosaic – $11B
· #439 Seaboard – $9B
· #435 Zoetis – $9B
Major Companies Not on the Fortune 500 (Privately Held or Based Outside the U.S.)
· Cargill – $160B
· Koch Industries – $125B
· Bunge – $53B
· Boehringer Ingelheim – $31B
· Syngenta – $29B
· Bayer Crop Sciences – $26B
· Nutrien – $26B
· CNH Industrial – $20B
· BASF Ag Solutions – $10B
Invasives Canada, Animal Health Canada and the Invasive Wild Pig Leadership Group have joined forces to launch at website calledd Wild Pigs Canada.
Farmers, hunters, hikers and the general public are encouraged to use the website for keeping up to date with information about wild pigs in Canada and to know what to do if one is sighted.
It is likely to have the greatest impact on imports from the United States.
“We are introducing domestic content requirements under the Cleaner Transportation Fuels regulation mandating that at least 75 per cent of the renewable content required in diesel fuel and 64 per cent of the renewable content required in gasoline be produced in Canada.,” the government announced in a news release.
About a third of Ontario’s corn harvest is processed into ethanol.
Hensall Co-op is giving $10,000 to the Huron County Food Bank Distribution Centre in Exeter and $10,000 to ONE CARE Clinton and smaller donatioons to five other community organizations.
Huron County Food Bank Distribution Centre providse snacks to 34 schools with about 7,000 students in Huron and Perth Counties.
ONE CARE Home and Community Support Services in Clinton’s gift will go towards the Driven to Care – Vehicle Replacement campaign. ONE CARE provides accessible transportation for older adults and people in the rural community who experience health challenges
The others receiving donations are Clinton Public Hospital Foundation for an Esophageal Dilator, the Royal Canadian Legion in Hensall to build an accessibility ramp, the Royal Canadian Legion, in Mitchell for kitchen renovations, Seaforth Community Hospital Foundation for a wound vacuum and Tiny Tater Childcare Cooperative in Carberry, Man., for a new childcare centre.
Nearly all strikers are long-term Hispanic employees, many with decades of service, who demand severance compensation after what they see as discriminatory measures tied to federal anti-immigration policies.
DaIry Farmers of America (DFA), which owns the company, is alleged to have threatened to bring in the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency and that escalated tensions.
W&W Dairy makes Hispanic-style cheeses and after Dairy Farmers of America recently bought it all workers were require3d to confirm their immigration status by Aug. 31.
About half of the workforce resigned immediately, but 43 employees refused, insisting on three weeks of severance pay per year worked. Workers denounce the move as intimidation, issuing a statement demanding respect for seniority, compensation, and protection from retaliation.
DFA has defended its actions, arguing that compliance with E-Verify is necessary under federal labor law and, in some cases, for federal contracts.
However, immigrant advocates point out that E-Verify is voluntary for most employers and rife with errors that disproportionately harm Hispanic workers.
A federal investigation has found flaws in the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s efforts to detect and prevent food-poisoning outbreaks, and specifically related to widespread Listeria illnesses among consumers of Silk company drinks made for Danone dairy company.
Inspector-General Scott Rattray said the agency has failed to meet its inspection targets and missed food-safety issues at 40 per cent of the 54 food-processing facilities his team checked.
Three of the sites investigated, or five per cent, “were found to have critical food safety issues that required an immediate response by CFIA inspection staff to protect public health,” Rattray’s report said.
The CFIA then suspended those licences, but did not post the suspensions on its website as it has done with other suspensions resulting from its own inspections. The Globe and Mail said the identities of those companies remains a CFIA secret.
Rattray found fault with the algorithm formula the CFIA uses to determine which facilities will be tested and how often. Significantly missing is consumer complaints about flawed products.
When Mark Holland was federal health minister last year he called for Rattray’s probe after three deaths and dozens of illnesses were linked to Listeria in Silk milk-sustitute products made for Danone at a contracted facility in Pickering.
Rattray’s team found that 26 of the 54 facilities it checked had never been visited by the CFIA, even though “the agency’s program direction requires that all domestic establishments be subject to an annual inspection.”
Nothing about CFIA incompetence surprises me.
Gangrongtai brand enoki mushrooms are under recall because the Canadian Food Inspection Agency found Listeria monocytogenes, a food-poisoning bacteria.
The agency said there have been no reports of sickened consumers linked to these mushrooms.
There have been a number of recalls this year of enoki mushrooms.
Farm Credit Canada has announced it will offer canola growers an additional $500,000 worth of loans to help them through cash-flow challenges brought on by China’s crippling new tariff on canola seed.
China earlier placed heavy tariffs on canola oil from Canada.
Both tariffs are interpreted as responses to Canada’s imposition of a 100 per cent tariff on China-made electric vehicles.
“Our role is to ensure our customers, and the broader industry, have access to the capital and flexibility they need to adapt, stay competitive and keep delivering high-quality products to markets at home and abroad,” said FCC’s chief executive officer Justine Hendricks.
The FCC said existing customers may defer principal payments for up to 12 months.
The Bill empowers the government to cancel, suspend, or change immigration documents including applications, work permits, or study permits under the pretext of an undefined “public interest,” the NFU said.
“Even the Liberal Minister of Justice reports in his Charter Analysis that the new powers to cancel or modify immigration documents could interfere with fundamental provisions for life, liberty, and security that are afforded to all migrants and refugees,” the NFU said in a news release.
The Bill also allows for the deportation of asylum-seeking refugees without a hearing if they entered Canada more than a year ago. Setting time limits on refugee hearings is considered a violation of international law, according to the Migrant Workers Network.
By limiting the time period for claim dates for refugees coming from the United States, the Strong Borders Act would increase the likelihood of their deportation back to the U.S. where they have been subject to extrajudicial policing and a campaign of terror.
Undocumented farm workers in the U.S. have described being "hunted like animals" by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the NFU said.
“The NFU is horrified by ICE’s treatment of migrant food producers in the United States. Apparently as an appeasement to Trump, this Bill threatens to make Canada complicit in the abuse of migrants both here and south of the border,” said NFU president Jenn Pfenning who is an organic farmer between New Hamburg and Baden, Ont.
The NFU has called for the repeal of the Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA) between Canada and the United States. Refugees should be able to transit between Canada and the U.S. or vice versa in the process of making their refugee claim, it said.
Farmers are concerned that the changes proposed by Bill C-2 will prevent migrants and refugees from building a stable life in Canada, the NFU said.
