AGCanada

Agrifood firm Cargill's Winnipeg-based Canadian arm plans to permanently shut its "outdated" grain elevator and ag input facility on the city's east side by the end of this month. The concrete facility on Dugald Road, just south of Canadian National Railway's Transcona rail yards, includes an 8,000-tonne capacity elevator, crop input dealership and dry fertilizer plant and shed. "The facility is outdated and would have required significant and costly upgrades to…[Read more]

Certification is "immediately" available for exports of live beef and dairy cattle and genetics from Canada to free trade partner Peru. The federal government announced Tuesday that negotiations on a health certificate for exports of cattle born after Aug. 1, 2007 have reached a "successful conclusion," allowing exports to resume immediately. Peru, which has had a free trade agreement with Canada since 2009, becomes the seventh market in Latin America and…[Read more]

Ukrainian grain traders have agreed to limit wheat exports to 1.7 million tonnes in February-July following a request from the government which is concerned about supply to the domestic market, Ekonomicheskie Izvestia reported on Friday. The newspaper quoted traders as saying that only 800,000 tonnes of wheat would be exported by March and the agreed cap will limit total wheat exports in the 2011-12 season to 4.8 million tonnes, or a half of what traders had planned to ship…[Read more]

A $2.7 million expansion project at an organic flour mill in Quebec's Estrie region has picked up a federal loan to help cover the bills. La Meunerie Milanaise, based at Milan, about 70 km northeast of Sherbrooke, will get up to $814,393 in a "repayable contribution" from the federal Agricultural Flexibility Fund's AgriProcessing Initiative. The funding is to go toward Meunerie Milanaise's installation of a new steel mill, which the government said Monday is expected…[Read more]

It was a gift with strings attached, but that was just fine with Bekelech Basa. The single mother of six children from this small community about five hours southwest of Addis Ababa was given a goat on the condition that she give up its first-born kid. It's just one example of how aid is changing. Basa was given the goat by the Ethiopian Kale-Heywet church, part of a revolving goat herd project operated by the church with assistance from Canadian-based Evangelical Missionary…[Read more]

Feeder cattle prices in Western Canada were steady to $3 per hundredweight higher last week after stagnating in the first half of February. A small group of medium-flesh Angus-cross steers averaging 548 pounds reached over $180/cwt at a presort sale in central Alberta. A large group of exotic steers weighing 855 pounds sold for $141 at a regular sale in the same region. Regular run-of-the-mill mixed steers weighing 800 to 900 lbs. averaged $137 in southern Manitoba. There is a very…[Read more]

The union for Canadian Pacific Railway's train crews and rail traffic controllers isn't yet in a strike position, but the railway already wants Ottawa to drop a conciliator into their contract talks. Calgary-based CP said Friday it has been in talks with the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) since early October toward a new contract for about 4,800 workers, whose previous contract expired Dec. 31. The railway said Friday it has asked federal Labour Minister Lisa Raitt to…[Read more]

The Schmallenberg virus that infected animals in five European countries and prompted Russia to ban some livestock imports from these countries poses negligible risks to humans, the world animal health body OIE said on Thursday. The virus, named after the German town where it was first discovered in November, has infected cattle, sheep, and goats in Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium, causing birth defects in offspring including deformation of the head, neck and…[Read more]

A post-emergent broadleaf and grassy weed herbicide for use in field, seed and sweet corn crops has picked up a new Canadian distributor. Amvac Chemical Corp., maker of Impact herbicide, has named Guelph-based Engage Agro to be the product's exclusive distributor and marketer in Canada. Impact, a Group 27 topramezone herbicide, offers both "crop safety and flexible application timing" for corn growers, the company said in a release Thursday. Engage Agro's…[Read more]

The absence of willing sellers and advances in other grains are adding some firmness to feed barley values in southern Alberta. However, the lack of fresh demand is limiting any upward price movement, keeping barley in a narrow range, said an industry participant. Lethbridge feed barley spot bids in mid-February are $210 per tonne, up from an early February low of $208, said Jim Beusekom, grain trader with Market Place Commodities in Lethbridge. New-crop bids are ranging…[Read more]