Interest rates have risen 300 basis points since the beginning of the year.  Photo: Andreas Wiebe/File

Farmland prices remain buoyant in the face of interest rate hikes

Despite significant interest rate hikes, Farm Credit Canada (FCC) is reporting continued increases in farmland values across Canada. According to the FCC report, Manitoba’s average farmland values increased by 6 per cent in the first six months of 2022. Alberta values were just behind that at 5.9 per cent and Saskatchewan was just above the […] Read more

The Bank of Canada continues to raise interest rates in an effort to halt inflation.

Understanding risk exposure key to managing rising interest rates

The Bank of Canada is signalling that more rate hikes are coming

Glacier FarmMedia – Farmers need to thoroughly understand their risk exposure as they view the Bank of Canada’s latest interest rate hike, says Farm Credit Canada (FCC) economist J.P. Gervais. The Bank of Canada on Sept. 7 announced a 75-basis-point increase in its key rate, bringing it to 3.25 per cent. It followed a 100-basis-point increase […] Read more

Quebec’s Agriculture Minister Andre Lamontagne speaks to the CAQ’s annual meeting in Drummondville in late May 2022. (Andre Lamontagne video screengrab via Facebook)

Quebec ag minister cruises to re-election

Legault's CAQ scores bigger second majority

Quebec’s incumbent agriculture, food and fisheries minister will be returning to the province’s legislature as part of an even larger government caucus. Preliminary results in Monday’s provincial election put Francois Legault’s Coalition avenir Quebec (CAQ) in a solid majority government position with 90 of 125 seats, followed by Dominique Anglade’s Liberals, remaining in official opposition […] Read more

Preproduction 2023 models of Ford’s F-series Super Duty pickup trucks. (Ford.com)

Ford, GM upgrade their heavy-duty pickup profit machines

New features aimed at business productivity

Detroit | Reuters — Ford Motor Co. on Tuesday took the wraps off the latest version of its Super Duty pickup, providing a look at how the U.S. automaker will manage one of the biggest challenges confronting Detroit. The problem: How to modernize the largest combustion pickups to keep demand strong and profits flowing, without […] Read more

Opinion: The path to reconciliation can start by reading some good books

Opinion: The path to reconciliation can start by reading some good books

There is some excellent fiction and non-fiction that opens the door to history — and understanding

Glacier FarmMedia – Sept. 30 marks the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, a day meant to honour the children who never returned home and the survivors of residential schools, as well as their families and communities.  Many people haven’t learned the history of residential schools because it wasn’t part of school curricula until recently […] Read more


File photo of wild horses running on grasslands in Nova Scotia’s remote Sable Island National Park Reserve. (Photo by Sarah Medill/Parks Canada/Handout via Reuters)

Wild horses face unruly storms as Fiona nears East Coast

Damages feared to buildings, utilities, crops

Ottawa | Reuters — Shaggy, long-maned wild horses grazing freely on the sandy grasslands of the crescent-shaped Sable Island in the North Atlantic are expected to come under the swipe of a powerful storm forecast to hit Eastern Canada this weekend. Hurricane Fiona, tracking northward after carving a destructive path through the Dominican Republic and […] Read more

Note the position of the original seal before removing it. It will help ensure the replacement is driven into the correct depth on the housing.

How to properly install a new seal

Tips to help you get the job done right to stop leaks on machinery

Glacier FarmMedia – Replacing leaking seals on machines is one of the most common on-farm repairs. It isn’t particularly difficult, but not getting a replacement seal seated correctly means wasted time, effort and money. Here are a few tips to make sure the replacement goes in properly and, most importantly, stops the leak. First, pay […] Read more

File photo of a rapeseed field in southern China’s Yunnan province. (YuenWu/iStock/Getty Images)

One-third of China’s land protected under ecological ‘red line’ scheme

Authorities crack down on farm encroachment

Shanghai | Reuters — Nearly a third of China’s land is now off-limits to development under a scheme known as the “ecological protection red line,” a senior official said at a news briefing on Monday, bringing the country in accord with global biodiversity targets. China first proposed its “red line” scheme in 2011 to put […] Read more


Opinion: Gorbachev’s Ontario farm walk that changed the world

Mikhail Gorbachev’s recent passing has prompted many retrospectives about his role as the last leader of the Soviet Union and the downfall of communism. Few, however, know of his connections to agriculture – and a walk in the fields of southern Ontario during his first trip to North America – that helped inform his views […] Read more

A hailstone collected by Western University’s Northern Hail Project had a maximum diameter of 12.3 centimetres, which is slightly larger than a standard DVD disc. It was found near Markerville, Alta., and weighed 292.71 grams, breaking a nearly 50-year-old record of 290 grams set in 1973.

Climate change-severe weather link being studied

Western University launches five-year initiative to study hail and climate

Glacier FarmMedia – The discovery by scientists of a record-breaking hailstone in Alberta this summer is part of an initiative to better understand severe weather in Canada during an era of climate change, potentially improving forecasts that could help producers. “These are the questions that this project is trying to determine — essentially, is climate change causing […] Read more