The four Canadian seed industry organizations now operating as Seeds Canada have named their first organizer-in-chief. Barry Senft, whose resume in Canadian agriculture includes stints as CEO for Grain Farmers of Ontario, executive director for the Canadian International Grains Institute, chief commissioner of the Canadian Grain Commission and second vice-president for Saskatchewan Wheat Pool, becomes […] Read more
Ex-GFO CEO to manage Seeds Canada
Barry Senft to help build up merged seed-industry group
Province to fund worker safety, automation tech
The pandemic created risk where workers had to be close together
Ontario is investing $22 million to try to spark sector-specific innovation, especially related to worker safety. The Agri-Tech Innovation Program is a cost-share initiative spurring large and small farm operations and processors to adopt innovative and new technologies to increase the health and safety of workers and increase efficiencies and productivity. Why it matters: The […] Read more
Treatment could manage chipping potato size
Gibberellic Acid could be a solution to using potato varieties too large for chipping
Potato growers know that size, consistency and uniformity matter to the bottom line and non-marketable potatoes at harvest can chip away at profitability. Take the Waneta potato; a good chipper variety appreciated by growers but panned by some processors due to its larger size. In 2020, Mark VanOostrum, supply manager at WD Potato Limited, along […] Read more
Herbicide injury rising in potato fields
Knowledge and preventative management can mitigate most instances
The source of potato herbicide injury isn’t always easy to pin down, especially when the usual suspects aren’t the guilty ones. During a recent Ontario Potato Board webinar, Andy Robinson, extension potato agronomist at North Dakota State University/University of Minnesota (NDSU/UMN,) said pinpointing how herbicides came into contact with a plant is often a challenge […] Read more
Fall and full-season cover crops show promise in potato trials
Some varieties have shown yield increases and erosion control
Cover crop trials in Prince Edward Island potato fields are yielding promising results. Over the last two years, Ryan Barrett, research and agronomy specialist, Prince Edward Island Potato Board, has run fall-seeded and full-season cover crop trials to assess if there are an overall soil and potato harvest benefit. Why it matters: An estimated 80 […] Read more
Burger King rolls out plant-based Impossible Burger in Canada
Nationwide launch of soy- and potato-based burger set for mid-April
The Canadian arm of quick-service chain Burger King has made its move into the Canadian plant-based burger market, working with U.S. processor Impossible Foods. Burger King, a U.S.-headquartered brand of Toronto-based Restaurant Brands International (RBI) since 2014, said Monday it becomes “the first quick-service restaurant in Canada to put the award-winning, plant-based Impossible Foods patty […] Read more
Direct-seeded potatoes show no harvest hit
Both yield and quality were comparable in an initial trial comparison of traditional spring tillage and direct seeding
The amount and quality of the potatoes coming off Chad Berry’s field last fall weren’t that much different from one side to the other, but one half came with a lot less tillage. Results are in from the 2020 field-scale trial, which featured a side-by-side comparison of conventional spring tillage and direct-seeded potatoes. Why it […] Read more
Alberta crop insurer taps reserve to cut premiums
AFSC to pare premiums by 20 per cent
The reserve at Alberta’s Crown crop insurance agency will be tapped to offset the premiums charged to farmers for the 2021 crop year, and possibly for longer. The province’s Agriculture Financial Services Corp. (AFSC) said Monday its farmer customers will get a 20 per cent discount on crop insurance premiums this year — which on […] Read more
Sweet potato research yields new Canadian option
Radiance variety provides short growing season with top yield production
The future is looking sweet for a Canadian variety of succulent orange-fleshed potato that’s a winter dinner table staple. Valerio Primomo, a Vineland Research Station scientist and vegetable breeder spoke about the development of Radiance, a variety of sweet potato with a short growing season during the Ecological Farmers Association of Ontario’s 2020 virtual conference. […] Read more
Would you eat a poutine in a pie this holiday season?
The Conversation – I recently saw a culinary invention that made me think about “tourtine.” The dish, as its name suggests, is a hybrid of tourtière and poutine. Poutine cheese curds and sauce are added to the tourtière’s pie filling, along with festive ingredients such as shredded meat and the inevitable foie gras. The tourtine […] Read more
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