Hot and dry summer coming

 

By the second half of summer, the weather could be hot and dry, according to the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration.

That’s because the weather coming from the Pacific Ocean is in transition from El Nina to El Nino.

Between now and then the weather Is likely to be quite variable as the two battle for dominance.

The winter was cold and snowy because El Nina dominated.

“La Niña and El Niño are two oscillations of ocean water temperatures in the tropical Pacific Ocean. El Niño is when it’s warmer than normal, and La Niña is cooler than normal,” Gillham said in an earlier interview. La Niña gives us a wavier jet stream and tends to give us more storms.

While a La Niña effect may produce harsh, cold winters in parts of Canada, as jet streams from the Pacific Ocean disrupt the polar vortex over the North Pole, El Niño’s effect usually means it will be warmer than normal.

It depends where the jet stream waves set up.

During La Niña, sea surface water temperatures from the tropical Pacific Ocean tend to drop by half a degree Celsius.

PED in Perth County

 

Swine Health Ontario reported an outbreak of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus at a nursery barn in Perth County.

The disease is deadly for pigs that age.

Two more PED outbreaks

 

There have been outbreaks of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus in a nursery-to-finish facility in Oxford County and a farrow-to-wean facility in Haldimand-Norfolk. There have been five outbreaks in that area of the province in less than two weeks.

 

McCain heir challenges siblings

Eleanor McCain has gone to the New Brunswick Court of King’s Bench hoping to gain permission to sell her inheritance to outsiders.

Her siblings have threatened to shun her from the family if she does, yet she said they have only made low-ball offers for her share of inheritance in the world’s largest French-fries business.

It is not the first family fracture. Her father and uncle fought over the company. Wallace left Harrison and bought Maple Leaf Foods Inc. and installed his son as president and chief executive officer.

Based on the value of publicly traded peers, the private company is worth about $20 billion.

McCain Foods with its head office in Florenceville, N.B., employs more than 20,000 employees people 160 countries and has annual sales of $16 billion. 

McCain Foods, the operating business, is owned by the holding company, MFGI. Ms. McCain, a professional musician, has been trying to cash out of MFGI since April, 2025. She plans use her inheritance to back charities and her own business ventures. 

Wallace and Harrison McCain, sons of a potato farmer, opened their first frozen fry factory in 1957. They built a global business, then feuded over leadership in the early 1990s, prior to their deaths in 2011 and 2004, respectively. 

Since 1995, McCain Foods has hired outside executives to run the company.

Control of MFGI is now shifting to 55 second- and third-generation McCain heirs.   

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Easter chocolates prices have soared

 

 Blame much higher chocolate prices on big swings in global cocoa markets, said CoBank’s  Billy Roberts, the bank’s senior food and beverage analyst.

That has oomplicated planning for chocolate manufacturers and led to higher retail prices for consumers, he wrote in a report on cocoa.

 

While short-term cocoa prices have come down, he said that will not likely be reflected in chocolate prices.

He said some manufacturers hedged against potential higher prices s they continue to pay high prices for cocoa.

Despite rising prices, Roberts said shoppers are opting for premium chocolates.

NFU blasts research cuts – again

 

 

The National Farmers Union issued another news release critical of the federal government’s cut to agriculture research budget and closing seven research centres.

Now is not the time to cut funding for research centres, farms and programs that are on the frontlines of agricultural climate science, it said, citing eight years of droughts in Southern Saskatchewan and two floods in British Columbia.

Public interest research on sustainable agriculture should be a central part of Canada's climate action strategy. 

Research capacity is essential to facilitating transitions towards a more sustainable Canadian agricultural sector. Public science is a public benefit, it said.

“The harm will be felt for generations,” it said.

 “Science isn’t a luxury, it’s an insurance policy.” 

Halting agricultural research that has been on the cutting edge of emissions reductions research will cost the government billions, and will have long-lasting negative impacts on the climate and the food system. the NFU said.

                  

 

Third PED case in Oxford County

There has been a third outbreak or Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus in Oxford County, this one a weaning finishing facility.