Getting new graduates onto farms proved helpful in making them comfortable in farm technology jobs.

Recruiting outside of ag schools

New-graduate program brings in aggies and non-aggies

A program that linked new graduates, many from non-agriculture programs, with agriculture companies, could provide lessons to the sector in how to recruit new employees. Why it matters: The agriculture industry has a chronic shortage of workers, with the University of Guelph reporting that each of its graduates usually has four jobs waiting for them. […] Read more

(Sleeman.ca)

Sleeman investing to bring back production from U.S.

Canada’s third-biggest national brewer plans upgrades at its southwestern Ontario plant, with which it plans to bring back some production it now contracts out to a U.S. brewery. Guelph-based Sleeman Breweries, owned since 2006 by Japanese brewer Sapporo, announced Monday it will invest $6.61 million to expand packaging capability, put up new beer tanks and […] Read more

(Jack Dykinga photo courtesy ARS/USDA)

Data mining finds no honeybee colony risk from correct neonic use

An expedition through published and unpublished studies on neonicotinoid pesticides has led a Guelph research team to find no colony-level risk to honeybees from the seed treatments — if they’re correctly used. The University of Guelph team, led by toxicologist Keith Solomon and adjunct professor Gladys Stephenson, analyzed 64 papers from “open, peer-reviewed literature” on […] Read more

The joint GFO/SGS Canada lab opened in Guelph in July 2016. (GFO/SGS Canada video image)

Ontario cereals lab filling nationwide demand

Grain Farmers of Ontario and SGS Canada took a risk in creating the Grains Analytical Testing Laboratory, as a partnership bringing wheat testing to a province with a comparatively small wheat crop. After eight months, and a first harvest of wheat analytics, the Guelph lab’s manager says they have found there is interest in the […] Read more

(Dave Bedard photo)

Ontario backs feed processing at Cargill beef plant

Ontario’s provincial government plans to put up over half a million dollars for Cargill to process byproducts from its Guelph beef plant for feed. Provincial Agriculture Minister Jeff Leal on Wednesday announced a $582,000 investment toward Cargill’s installation of a “value-added” processing system converting raw byproduct into a “protein-rich animal feed ingredient.” The “leading-edge technological […] Read more