AgTalk helps farmers

AgTalk, an on-line forum for farmers feeling stressed, is proving effective in addressing mental health crises, according to executive director Merle Massie of the parent operation DoMoreAg.

Farmers can access AgTalk without revealing their identity, and Massie said that has resulted in more frank revelations of how farmers are feeling.

The 2025 annual report showed that 73 per cent of people who joined AgTalk are not engaged in formal mental health support, meaning AgTalk is their only outside support.

“Thirty-eight per cent of them report past thoughts of suicide or self-harm. These people are not feeling well,” she said.

“Eighty per cent reported their mental health as poor or very poor, and 42 per cent said that they shared something on Togetherall that they’ve never shared with anyone else.”

The statistics show people of all ages have joined.

DoMoreAg has additional on-line sites, including one on divorce.

Massis made her comments during a presentation at Canada’s Farm Show in Regina.

Ontario hog production increased

 

 

Ontario hog production increased by seven per cent to 6.2 million market hogs last year, the marketing board reported to its recent annual meeting.

Chair Tara Terpstra said farmers benefitted from a period of good prices and steady demand.

As part of its strategic plans, it will be increasing research into the impact that changes in trade policies could have on hog farmers.

The board directors are Tara and Tanya Terpstra, Karen Sanders, Charlie Illick, Jolanda Vandenbroek, Bruce Hudson, Philip Van Raay, Casssie Van Engelen and TJ Murray.

Listowel ag centre design is ready

 

The Agri-Food Discovery Centre that is to be built in Listowel now has a design ready for a $38-million project of 34,000 square feet.

Current plans include a main discovery centre, an outdoor amphitheatre, an observation tower and a dining pavilion, the community was told at the centre’s recent annual meeting.

There will be demonstration plots, gardens and a rain garden, but no livestock or poultry because of disease risks.

The centre will show the latest farming innovations and, as such, will be designed to educate both farmers and the general public.

Dairy farmer Steve Dolson, chair of the Agri-Food Discovery Centre, said now that they have plans, fundraising will ramp up. A number of companies have already contributed.

a2 shareholders bought off

 

Class action lawsuits filed on behalf of people holding shares in a2 Milk Company have settled out of court for $62 million Australian ($59.9 million Cdn).

The shareholders said a2 issued misleading advice about its financial prospects.

When share prices fell, two different legal firms launched class-action lawsuits on behalf of shareholders.

The two cases were combined and were due to be heard in court beginning June 21.

Farmers slightly optimistic

 

Farmers are slightly more optimistic heading into planting season according to the Purdue University/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer.

It rose 11 points to 127 in March.

The Future Expectations Index rose by 14 points as 62 per cent of those surveyed said they think the United States economy is headed in the right direction.

There was a slight improvement in farmers’ reports of their current conditions. 

The report said producers remain cautious. Only four per cent plan to increase machinery purchases and only 20 per cent expect improved financial performance this year.

Is the key to a bee’s heart through the stomach?

 

The key to queen bees’ hearts may be through their stomachs and a research team at the University is on the case.

About a third of queen bees fail to survive an Ontario winter and it might be because of the microflora in their guts, the researchers led by Brendan Daisley speculate.

Beekeepers import replacement queen bees from countries such as the United States, Chile and Italy and their digestive systems have evolved to suit a different environment, so that may be the reason so many die.

The Canadian Beekeepers Association has noticed and encourages its members to keep as many domestic queen bees as possible.

Now it is supporting the Canadian Bee Gut Project.

As part of the research the team is collecting data about the microbiome profiles of thousands of bees from across Canada.

They are looking into how those gut profiles differ in their support of digestion, immune system regulation and countering harmful bacteria.

They have already found that domestic bees have microbiomes that support those systems and are at least a big part of why their survival rates are better than the imported queen bees..

"We're trying to better understand how the microbiome impacts overwintering success," said Daisley, who is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Guelph.

Canadians import about 300,000 queen bees per year and they build colonies that are a mismatch with Canada's forage, pathogens and seasonal stressors, Daisley told CBC Radio in Kitchener.

"Their genetics have evolved to be most suited to warmer climates so when they come here, their offspring, the worker bees, are not adapted to colder climates and to surviving the winter,” he said,

Iran war increases food packaging costs

Food packaging costs are rising because of the war in Iran, said Christopher Mejía Argueta, a research scientist at the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics. 

Most processed foods are packaged in plastics derived from oil.

Just as oil price increases have put up prices for gasoline, diesel and fertilizer, they will certainly impact food packaging.

Agueta said there are alternatives such as glass, reuseables and recycling, but none of those are easy or cheap alternatives.

Glass is also much heavier and fragile.

Even if returns, such as glass, are used, there are added transportation costs, he said, and the challenge of converting packaging lines.

There is already a shortage of truck drivers, he said, so ir will be a challenge to truck returns.