A 15-year-old has died in a well near Arkona.
Police and other officials are investigating the death on Saturday afternoon.
Ontario Provincial Police for Middlesex County, Lambton County Emergency Measures Services and local fire departments responded to a farm on Parkhill Drive in the Middlesex County.
He was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Federal Agriculture Minister Heath MacDonald is pushing for speedier decisions from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the Pest Management Regulatory Agency.
“We need a stable regulatory environment. We need an even playing field with the countries that we trade with. We need to expedite those (regulatory) decisions much more quickly and much more effectively,” MacDonald said in a media scrum at the meeting of federal, provincial and territorial agriculture ministers in Winnipeg.
“We’re starting to see a change in that. We’ve seen in presentations, here, today (by) CFIA. We’ve seen a change in them. But we need to keep pushing that,” MacDonald said.
EDF is proposing to build a 20-turbine wind farm near Ridgetown.
The first steps will be consultations with the municipality of Chatham-Kent and the the Independent Electricity System Operator.
The Botany Wind Project would generate 100 megawatts of electricity and have a life span of 20 years. The proposal includes plans to dismantle or rejuvenate the turbines.
The company said it "will engage with community members, First Nations, local government officials, and local businesses to make sure the final project design is socially, environmentally, and economically sustainable. Our goal is to minimize potential impacts to the environment, local stakeholders, and to partner with First Nation communities."
Health Canada is narrowing the registration of dicamba sprayed on dicamba-resistant crops.
Bayer is a company that markets soybeans with combined resistance to dicamba and Roundup.
The new restriction bans spraying soybeans with dicamba after they are growing, rendering largely useless.
Bayer said it stands behind the safety of dicamba.
DuBreton, a Quebec-based pork processing company that serves niche markets, wants the federal government to mandate labeling for gene-edited pork.
Gene editing has been used to enhance pigs’ resistance to Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory virus (PRRS) disease and other gene-editing projects are in the pipeline.
DuBreton’s offerings include organic pork. Organic standards prohibit gene editing.
“Without enforceable standards and transparent labelling, consumers cannot be certain the pork they purchase hasn’t been altered through genetic engineering,” said duBreton president Vincent Breton in a news release.
He also called on other certifying bodies, such as Humanely Raised and Raised Without Antibiotics, to make gene-editing labeling part of their standards.
This summer, the federal government completed public consultation around regulation of pigs that are resistant to Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS) due to gene editing.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration cleared the pigs for use in the American food supply earlier this year, saying the edits are safe for pigs and for humans who consume pork.
However, according to a duBreton survey, 74 per cent of consumers are “concerned about gene-edited pork in their food supply and demand total transparency,” the news release said.
It’s probable that most of those surveyed don’t understand gene editing’s effect on pork production and quality.
Hog Slat, Inc. is opening a retail location in Watford, Ontario, expanding the company’s Canadian operations to better serve livestock producers throughout the region.
The family-owned company began in 1969 in Newton Grove, North Carolina ,and now serves hog and poultry farmers across North America.
A growing crisis is silently unfolding in agriculture. Farmers are 3.5 times more likely to die by suicide than the general population. With mounting financial stress, that number could be on the rise this year, writes farm reporter Tyne Morgan.
The number of farmers dying by suicide is on the rise, and it could be at a rate U.S. agriculture hasn’t seen since the 1980s.
Even though statistics on suicides among farmers aren’t reliable from the 1980s because many were deemed “accidents” during that time, some estimates point to more than 1,000 farmers dying by suicide during that crisis.
“Unfortunately, it just almost seems like it’s a pandemic situation. I mean, there’s a lot of it, and it’s sad,” says Brent Foreman, a farmer in Shelby County, Mo., who knows the impacts of farmer suicides all too well.
“From an agricultural perspective, there’s a lot of stress in this industry, especially now,” Foreman says. “And somebody that’s contemplating this. I would say, we as farmers, we like to try to fix things, and we’re pretty good at it, but you can’t fix everything. If you get to a point like that, please reach out to someone, a family member, a good friend. Just please try to get some help.”
When a person loses hope, that’s when the situation turns bleak.
“Sadly, that is the end all for a lot of people,” said Jolie Foreman, executive director at Shelby County Cares.
“Hope is key. If you have hope, you can keep going. When you lose hope, it’s just a very dangerous place to be.”
In Canada, a number of farm organizations, the Canadian Association for Mental Health and rural communities have stepped up efforts to persuade stressed farmers to seek professional help.
There will be at least two new directors of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture following zone elections.
Maaike Campbell is the new director for Zone 6, representing farmers in Lambton and Middlesex counties. Together with her family, she farms near Strathroy, producing chicken and beef and growing crops. Campbell replaces Crispin Colvin, a beef and crop farmer who had represented Zone 6 on the board since 2016.
Marnie Wood has won the election for Zone 10 which is for Durham, Peterborough and Kawartha Lakes/Haliburton, She is a second generation dairy farmer in Cannington, She takes over from Steve Brackenridge who retired after nine years on the board.
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Larry Davis returns after out-voting chicken farmer Henry Lise and beef and crop farmer Steve Sickle. Davis represents Brant, Haldimand and Norfolk and is a cash crop and sheep farmer.
Greg Dietrich of Mildmay was acclaimed as Zone 2 director representing Bruce and Grey counties.
OFA president Drew Spoelstra, who farms near Binbrook growing crops, raising horses and producing beef and milk, was acclaimed as the Zone 5 representative for farmers in Halton, Hamilton/Wentworth and Niagara.
Food prices continued to rise more than overall inflation during August, increasing by 3.4 per cent.
Beef was mainly responsible for the increase, rising by 7.2 per cent.
Fresh fruit prices were down 1.1 per cent year over year, mostly driven by price declines for grapes and berries, according to Statistics Canada.
Mike Donnelly-Vanderloo has renewed optimism about white bean research now that replacements for weed specialist Peter Sikkema and plant breeder Peter Pauls are in place.
Whie beans have grown into a major export crop, mainly to Japan, led by Hensall Coop which has become one of the most profitable cooperatives in Ontario
Isabelle Aicklen, with a doctorate in plant agriculture from the University of Guelph, is now in place as the assistant professor of field crop weed management at the Ridgetown campus, conducting research similar to that of Sikkema.
Mohsen Yoosefzadeh-Najafabadi has been white bean plant breeder for about a year, carrying forward work begun by Pauls.
He said he has an interest in computational biology and is moving quickly to use artificial intelligence.
Donnelly Vanderloo, who has long had an interest in white bean research, said during a recent field day near Clinton that “we were sitting in a restaurant in Ridgetown, and we were looking at all the changes that had happened within a relatively short time. and you could just see the room was sort of deflated. The continuity of our research was in question.”
He thanked the University of Guelph for filling the research positions.
The White Bean Growers Association also contracted Blackcreek Research to work on white mould and some pesticides and dessicants.
Trials are conducted at the Huron Research Station near Centralia where the review of research was provided recently during a field day.
Saputo is going ahead with plans first announced in 2023 to close a cheese plant near Green Bay, Wisc.
It has 240 employees.
The original announcement said the plant would be closed at the end of 2024, but now it said it will be at the end of this year.
Saputo, which has its head office in Montreal, is Canada’s largest dairy company and makes cheeses in the United States, Australia, South American and Europe.
British Columbia’s meat inspectors have returned to work after a one-day strike by provincial employees.
Minister of Agriculture and Food Lana Popham announced the decision on meat inspectors late Thursday without objection from the B.C. General Employees’ Union (BCGEU).
“Abattoirs play a critical role in supporting farmers and ranchers throughout B.C.,” she said. “I am very pleased that we have been able to successfully work with the BCGEU to have provincial meat inspectors classified as essential workers during this round of job action.”
The strike closed some plants, particularly small ones.
Despite the ongoing labor strife, Popham thanked the union for its “collaboration and willingness to work with us to safeguard human health, support animal welfare and support the farmers and producers of this province.”
BCGEU President Paul Finch told CBC News that the union had not meant to strike meat processing, calling the meat inspectors’ participation in the work stoppage “an oversight by government,” which had not previously declared them essential.
The United States Department of Agriculture reduced its estimate of global meat production for this year in its recent report.
The beef forecast was lowered because of fewer steers, heifers and cows and pork output was cut because of lower lower slaughter rates and lighter carcass weights.
The estimate for broiler chicken production was raised for the third and fourth quarters of 2025, supported by higher weights and hatchery data, with the increase carried into 2026.
Turkey production was also raised for the second half of 2025 but reduced for 2026 on slower growth signals. Egg output was increased for late 2025 and early 2026 as laying hen inventories recover.
Cattle prices were forecast to be higher through the rest of 2025 and into 2026; hog prices are also expected to strengthen on tighter supplies and spillover support from cattle.
Broiler chicken prices were forecast lower on production growth, while turkey prices were raised for late 2025 but held steady for 2026.
More than 100 pork producers from 20 states went to Washington recently to lobby for “an urgent legislative fix” to California’s Proposition 12 covering the size of hog pens.
The delegates explained to federal lawmakers and staff how the controversial law is driving up costs for consumers, threatening small family farms and disrupting interstate commerce, according to the National Pork Producers Council.
“The patchwork of laws set in motion by California’s Prop 12 threatens our mission,” said council president Duane Statelet.
“Congress must act now to ensure a patchwork of regulations does not further threaten this industry we have worked so hard to build,” he said.
The law has also impacted exports of Canadian pigs and pork because Proposition 12 prohibits pork products from growers that do not adhere to Prop 12 regulations from being sold in California.
The big packers don’t want to segregate pigs and pork for the California market, so many demand Proposition 12 standards for all the pigs they buy. That includes weaner pigs from Canada.
The good news was fueled by stronger wholesale prices.
For the week ending Sept. 6, the Comprehensive Cutout averaged $409.20 per hundredweight, up $5 from the previous week and the highest on record. As recently as mid-August packers were losing $9.50 a head, but after Labour Day made $38 a head..
Feedlots also saw stronger profits. Average five-Area Direct Steers traded at $242.62 per hundredweight; breakeven was estimated at $192.35.
Bert Rammelaere has died. He was 90.
He a member of the Kent Agriculture Hall of Fame and reeve and deputy reeve of Tilbury Township.
He served on the Ontario Drainage Tribunal, the Ontario Grain Corn Council, the Ontario Wheat Producers Marketing Board, and the Kent Soil and Crop Improvement Association.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is proposing a new rule to have chicken-processing plants test for food-poisoning bacteria before carcasses are chilled.
The test will probably reveal plenty of pathogens contained in the digestive systems of birds, but the point is to establish whether controls further down the plant’s processing eliminate the pathogens.
All Safe Food for Canadians (SFC) licence holders who are slaughtering poultry are expected to implement the pre-chill microbiological monitoring program by Dec. 1, 2025. Currently, the program is limited to poultry carcasses.
The CFIA said license holders will be able to demonstrate ongoing compliance with the Preventive Control Plan requirements under the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations.
It said that when operators establish their internal performance baseline using pre-chill microbiological monitoring data, they will be able to allow businesses to track their own performance over time, identify shifts in process control and pursue improvement initiatives.
The Supreme Court of the United States has agreed to a speedy decision on whether most of President Donald Trump’s tariffs are legal.
In May a federal district court ruled they are not an appeal court agreed in an Aug. 29 decision.
The appeal court allowed the tariffs to remain in place until the Supreme Court announced its decision.
The case does not involve Trump’s tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum, nor the extension of those tariffs to include content of steel and aluminum in Canadian products such as kitchen appliances.
Nor are the many other Canadian exports affected because they fall under the trade agreement among Canada, Mexico and the United States.
Trumps’ tariffs were challenged by the Liberty Justice Center.
Jeffrey Schwab, senior counsel and director of litigation at the Liberty Justice Center said he was “confident” that the justices would reiterate the lower court findings “that the president does not have unilateral tariff power under IEEPA (International Emergency Economic Powers Act),” which as written by Congress makes no mention of tariffs.
Canada’s agriculture ministers are meeting in Winnepeg and an overhaul of business risk management programs is on the agenda.
Other items they will ponder are international and internal trade, market access, animal disease preparedness, crop protection and pesticides, labour and the temporary foreign worker program.
On the eve of the meeting, CBC national news featured a story about inter-provincial trade in meat.
Jessica Frenette, the ownedr of Bird's Hill Farms in Woodstock, New Briunswick, said chefs around the Maritimes are looking for beef from her Wagyu cows, but packing plants need federal inspection to market across provincial borders. Her meat is processed by a company with a provincial licence.
Attending were New Brunswick agriculture minister Pat Finnigan, P.E.I. minister Bloyce Thompson, Alberta minister RJ Sigurdson, Ontario minister Trevor Jones, Manitoba minister Ron Kostyshyn, federal minister Heath MacDonald, B.C. minister Lana Popham, Sask. minister Daryl Harrison, Nova Scotia Greg Morrow and John Streicker
from Yukon.
Nutrien, Canada’s dominant fertilizer company, is selling Profertil, a nitrogen company in Argentina.
An Argentinian cooperative is the buyer for about $830 million.
For the first time in decades, Nutrien faces significant competition in its core potash mining business because BHP of Australia is poised to open the largest potash mine in Saskatchewan where Nutrien began as Potash Corp. of Canada.
Canada and Saskatchewan have allowed potash miners to operate a cartel on potash exports.
The federal and Ontario governments announced they have committed $4.7 million for 20 companies and 48 research and innovation projects.
The Grow Ontario Accelerator Hub, operating under Bioenterprise Canada Corporation, has used up all of its money for 2025-2526, but expects it will have more money for next year.
The money was all committed almost immediately after applications opened on Friday.
OAFRI provides funding for five research, innovation and commercialization stream.
Twenty new companies have joined the Grow Ontario Accelerator Hub, the Ontario government announced.
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has put AgriStats at the center of price-fixing cases in the chicken, turkey, pork and beef industries.
Since 1985 the company has gathered information from the largest processors in those commodities, compiled reports containing the information it gathered and sold it back to the companies but stripped of the company identifications.
Since at least the early 1970s, A.C. Nielson company has done the same for the Canadian grocery business.
The government filed charges in a Minnesota federal court, portraying Agri Stats not as a peripheral player but as a central architect of information-sharing systems that, prosecutors say, suppressed competition across the chicken, pork and turkey sectors.
The company has disputed the claims In a statement posted to its website the day the DOJ filed suit, the company said its benchmarking services have “played a vital role in the United States economy” since 1985, helping protein producers identify efficiencies, innovate, and provide “more chicken, pork, and turkey to consumers for less money.”
The company said the DOJ lawsuit “turns the antitrust laws on their head” and ignores a prior two-year DOJ investigation that closed in 2012 without action.
The DOJ lawsuit against Agri Stats comes against the backdrop of years of sprawling civil litigation that has touched nearly every major U.S. poultry processor — and many in pork and beef as well. As much a threat to Agri Stats’ business model, the outcome has implications for the entire industry’s ability to share information.
Either way, it all comes at a cost. Since 2016, more than $4 billion in settlements have been paid to resolve claims that companies conspired to limit supply and raise prices.
Meatingplace Magazine lists the most notable settlements as:
· Pilgrim’s Pride (2021) — Paid $75 million to end claims in the broiler chicken antitrust litigation.
· Tyson Foods (2021) — Agreed to $221.5 million to resolve allegations in the same case.
· JBS USA (2021) — Paid $13 million in the broiler case and later reached $52.5 million in pork-related settlements.
· Smithfield Foods (2022) — Settled pork antitrust claims for $83 million.
The largest single payout came in August, when a group of poultry farmers reached a $100 million settlement with Pilgrim’s Pride in a class-action lawsuit alleging price-fixing in the broiler industry. While these amounts are significant on paper, they rarely account for all of the alleged overcharges.
Antitrust law scholar Peter Carstensen said “the settlements never really cause [companies] to disgorge everything … there is a certain goodwill issue for businesses that they keep getting caught with their fingers in the cookie jar.”
One company did not pay to settle out of court.
Sanderson Farms took its defense all the way to a jury in the broiler chicken antitrust litigation and won. The 2023 verdict cleared the company of allegations that it conspired to cut production and raise prices.
Prime Minister Mark Carney pledged on Friday to introduce new biofuel production incentives and provide more than $370 million to assist domestic canola producers.
The prime minister said plans to amend Canada's Clean Fuel Regulations to spur development of a Canadian biofuel industry, to increase loan limits for canola producers to $500,000 and invest in trade diversification measures to support agriculture sectors.
Chris Davidson, president of the Canola Council of Canada, said new supports are missing the mark on what the industry needs to survive a steep Chinese tariff.
"We don't believe there's been proper recognition of extensive impacts on the rest of the canola value chain," he said during a CBC TV interview.
An ostrich farm in British Columbia has been granted another interim stay by the Federal Court of Appeal in Ottawa, delaying the execution of the birds condemned by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency because of an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza.
Universal Ostrich Farms in Edgewood, B.C wants to save it remaining 69 ostriches.
The farm has lost in Federal Court and the Federal Court of Appeal, but on Thursday its lawyer sought another stay on the cull order, filing a series of documents as the farm seeks a hearing in Canada’s high court.
In a decision dated Saturday, the Federal Court of Appeal granted an interim stay until the stay motion “is decided on the basis of a full record.”
The decision says a notice to cull the birds is “hereby stayed pending the disposition of the stay motion,” with the deadline for the CFIA to respond to that stay motion being Tuesday.
“This gives us a little bit of time, not a lot,” lawyer Umar Sheikh, who represents the farm, said in an interview shorty after the interim stay motion was granted.
They provide information about farming in the Waterloo Region.
For example, one beside an apple farm has information about the orchard.
Another explains the value of water protection and soil conservation beside a project done with support from the Grand River Conservation Authority’s clean water program.
Bikers have formed an association which has raised money to restore the former Grand Trunk Railway line for biking.
Major bridge work remains to be completed at the Goderich end of the trail.
Prime Minister Mark Carney said there will be a new $370-million biofuel production incentive, and clean fuel regulations will be amended to help the biofuels industry.
Canola will also get relief support from the federal government to help it bear China's 75.8 per cent tariff on Canadian canola.
They are part of a package of new programs to help Canadians weather United States President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
True North Genetics Ltd. has taken over from financially-failed Genesus.
True North said it is a company with new ownership, energized leadership, and a bold vision for the future of pork production.
It merged with Canada ZF which bought Genesus in July, 2023, and renamed it Genesus Genetic Technology.
Jim Long, president and chief executive officer, Mike Van Schepdael, vice president and Bob Kemp, also a vice president, led Canada ZF.
True North is based in Winnipeg. It also owns Jersey Red Duroc.
It describes the deal with Genesus as a merger.
There have been a number of new product recalls because they contain pistachios contaminated with salmonella food-poisoning bacteria.
Eight products sold at Shamyat Cuisine in Mississauga are on recall.
Dubai brand Pistachio & Knafeh Milk Chocolate is under recall in Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick.
Eight products sold online from Soltan Bakery in Mississauga are on recall.
Public Health Canada reports 62 people have been sickened by the pistachios, 11 of them in Ontario and 45 in Quebec.
The head of the Canadian Cattle Association (CCA) is optimistic that his organization can resolve issues that the Alberta Beef Producers (ABP) say sparked the provincial group’s plan to quit from the national group next year, reports Frank Fuhrig on Meatingplace Magazine’s website.
The ABP announced two months ago that it plans to withdraw from the CCA next July 1 over issues of governance and fiscal transparency.
ABP officials complain that the organization is responsible for more than half of the CCA’s annual funding but has only seven seats on the CCA’s 24-member board of directors. The group is seeking an elected finance chair who would report fiscal tracking of where member dollars are being used, according to ABP president Doug Roxburgh.
Meanwhile, CCA president Tyler Fulton is optimistic that the two sides will resolve the issues raised by ABP before the July 1 deadline, adding that leaders from both groups are expected to hold talks before the semi-annual meeting scheduled to start next week.
The Ontario College of Veridians has disciplined several veterinarians this year.
Dr. Joseph Wolfer was found guilty of professional misconduct.
His licence was suspended for 14 months and he has to pay $5.000.
He is also required to participate in a forensic psychiatric assessment, undergo counselling, treatment or other course of action recommended by the psychiatric assessor, and co-operate with any recommendations of his treating physicians, therapists and/or other healthcare professionals.
Dr. Tejwant Chahal was found guilty of professional misconduct. He must review the College's medical record learning module and undergo medical record reviews.
Dr. Jay Menji was found guilty of professional misconduct, his licence was suspended for one month and he was required to participate in pre-remediation assessment, up to three medical record reviews, and in one-day mentorship. He was allso required to prepare a 500-word reflective essay following remediation and participate in post-remediation assessment.
Dr. Nabeel Al-Azawi was found guilty of professional misconduct, his licence suspended for four months and he was required to complete a one-day assessment, one-day mentorship, the medical record-keeping course, the ethics course, a one-day follow up assessment, and up to four medical record reviews.
He was also disciplined in 2017.
Prime Minister Mark Carney said he and other senior officials will work to resolve a dispute with China over tariffs imposed on canola.
China hit Canadian canola seed imports with preliminary 75.8 per cent duties last month following an anti-dumping investigation, escalating a year-long trade dispute. It earlier put new tariffs on canola oil. China is by far Canada’s biggest canola seed market.
“We’re going to work hard to get that right … the minister of international trade has been engaged, our foreign minister is engaged, I will be engaged to work to find a solution for our agricultural relationship,” Carney told reporters in Toronto.
Canada, the world’s largest exporter of canola, shipped almost $5 billion of canola products to China in 2024, about 80 per cent of which was seed. The tariffs are high enough to stall canola exports to China.
On a different front, the Canadian canola industry aims to gain better deals for canola oil exports to the United States to be used as engine fuel.
Conservative party leader Pierre Poilievre wants the federal government to axe the temporary foreign worker program.
He said it has flooded the market with cheap labour and made it harder for young Canadians to find work.
But he also said he would have a way to hire foreigners for difficult-to-fill agriculture jobs, presumably meaning crop workers and meat-packing industry jobs.
"The Liberals have to answer, 'Why is it that they are shutting our own youth out of jobs and replacing them with low-wage, temporary foreign workers from poor countries who are ultimately being exploited,'" Poilievre said.
Canada already has a separate immigration stream for farm workers called the Seasonal Agriculture Worker Program (SWAP) that allows employers to bring in workers from Mexico and other participating Caribbean countries.
Poilievre stressed that he doesn't blame the temporary foreign workers themselves but the Liberal government and "liberal corporate elites" who he says are exploiting these workers to enrich themselves.
The federal and Ontario governments announced they will offer $14.6 million to farmers who undertake conservation measures.
The RALP Marginal Lands Initiative, delivered by Conservation Ontario, is receiving an additional $9.6 million to help farmers create or enhance natural features such as wetlands or pollinator habitats on marginal agricultural lands.
The program connects farmers to technical support and organizations that can make it easier for farmers who carry out large-scale environmental projects on their land, including carbon sequestering and reducing emissions.
An additional investment of up to $5 million is being invested in the RALP Ontario Agricultural Sustainability Initiative, delivered by the Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association (OSCIA), to help farmers access funding to plant grasslands and trees, reduce
tillage and build water retention features.
These improvements help farmers better withstand extreme weather, improve soil and water health and boost biodiversity.
First they merged in 2015. Now Kraft-Heinz has announced plans to split into two separate companies by the second half of next year.
One company which will be named North American Grocery Co. will take over the meat, cheese and prepared foods products. Those now garner about $10 billion a year in sales.
The other company, Global Taste Elevation Inc., will take over sauces, spreads and shelf-stable meals sold under brand names such as Heinz, Philadelphia and Kraft Mac and Cheese.
Earlier this summer, Warren Buffet took a second major write-down on the value of Kraft-Heinz shares. He wrote off $3 billion in 2019, five years after he bought about 27.5 per cent of the company’s shares and another $3.8 billion this August.
Buffet said during an interview with MSNBC that he is disappointed about the planned split.
Canada has endorsed the equivalence of Mexico's Federal Inspection Type (TIF) system for beef, pork, and poultry products, ensuring the continuity and expansion of Mexican meat exports to the Canadian market.
The move came as health officials met to strengthen the safe trade of agri-food products.
They are working toward new strategies to streamline existing protocols and open up trade for new products, both conventional and organic.
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.