The Smart Agri-Food Super Cluster aims to use efficient and powerful data to create better collaboration within the agriculture sector. It is one of nine super clusters in the running for $950 million in federal funding for super clusters that make a broad economic impact. Another agriculture sector cluster, the Protein Industries Canada Supercluster, is […] Read more
Super cluster aims to break down industry silos with data
AGI buys bin sensor, fertilizer blending system makers
Best known as the parent for several Canadian and U.S. manufacturers of grain handling and storage equipment, Ag Growth International is expanding its tech portfolio. Winnipeg-based AGI announced Wednesday it has bought Burnaby, B.C.-based CMC Industrial Electronics and Iowa-based Junge Control (JCI) for undisclosed sums. CMC, which formed in 1997 and has facilities at Burnaby […] Read more
Limagrain says GMO protests could force R+D relocation
Paris | Reuters — Limagrain, the world’s fourth-largest seed maker, will consider moving its research activities out of France if field trials in its home market continue to be sabotaged by opponents of genetically modified crops. The French co-operative group was targeted last month by protestors who invaded test fields southeast of Paris and scattered […] Read more
U.S. grains: Corn jumps in short-covering bounce
Chicago | Reuters — U.S. corn futures climbed more than one per cent on Wednesday on short-covering and technical buying after recent contract lows and on expectations that a weaker U.S. dollar may revive slumping export demand. Wheat also rose about one per cent after hitting one-month lows in the previous session, while soybeans recovered […] Read more
Mapping profit can drive precision farming decisions
Precision farming can find the high-yield, low-yield, high-fertility and low-fertility areas of a farm, but the missing link has been how that ties to profitability. Why does it matter? The capacity to apply nutrients variably across a crop field isn’t new, but it’s been difficult for farmers to see the justification of the cost of […] Read more
U.S. grains: Wheat hits one-month low on supplies, acreage forecasts
Chicago | Reuters — U.S. wheat futures fell to a one-month low on Tuesday, pressured by ample global grain supplies and a government forecast on Friday that said U.S. farmers planted more winter wheat this season than had been expected. Soybeans climbed to a one-week high on short-covering and concerns that dry conditions in Argentina […] Read more
Rush on to reverse U.S. tax boon for ag co-ops
Chicago | Reuters — Republican U.S. senators are working with some of the world’s biggest agricultural merchants to undo a last-minute provision in the tax overhaul that threatens to distort the grains market and starve private firms of corn, soy and wheat supplies. It was included during final revisions of the tax bill that passed […] Read more
U.S. grains: Wheat drops most since August after USDA acreage surprise
Chicago | Reuters — Chicago wheat futures tumbled nearly three per cent on Friday, notching their biggest daily decline since August, after the U.S. Department of Agriculture showed larger-than-expected U.S. winter wheat plantings. Corn futures fell to life-of-contract lows, while soybeans turned higher in a recovery from four-month lows in the wake of the midday […] Read more
Canada welcomes Trump suggestion of NAFTA deadline extension
London, Ont. | Reuters — Canada welcomes the suggestion by U.S. President Donald Trump that the deadline for concluding talks to modernize NAFTA could be extended beyond the end of March, Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland told reporters on Friday. Trump told the Wall Street Journal on Thursday that “a lot of things are hard to […] Read more
More snow lately over the Sahara than the Prairies
CNS Canada — Parts of the Sahara Desert received rare snowfall over the past week, with up to 40 cm falling in the Algerian desert town of Ain Sefra. That freak snow — only the third time in 40 years — made for some fantastic photographs before melting, but would be more welcome in Western […] Read more
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