SeCan announced that Nick Cowan has joined its team as Marketing Representative for southwestern Ontario. With over three decades of experience in the seed industry, SeCan said in a release Nick brings deep market knowledge and a proven track record of building strong customer relationships. Nick will cover the Niagara–Windsor corridor, and will play a […] Read more
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Nick Cowan joins SeCan
Matt Hooyer joins SeCan
Matt Hooyer has been appointed SeCan’s Product Development Lead for eastern Canada. Matt joins SeCan after working in product development and soybean breeding with Syngenta the past 13 years. There, he worked on both food-grade and traited soybeans. In his new role at SeCan, he will be responsible for product development and providing support to […] Read more
Seed growers offer proof that new varieties will work, says SeCan manager
Todd Hyra can't speak for the entire grain industry, but as far as SeCan is concerned, its western business manager says there's no such thing as a
'Version 2.0" of any of the varieties it distributes.
Feds invest in research to promote more diverse crop rotations
The federal government is investing $5,733,852 million in funding to advance soybean, corn and oat research and promote diverse crop rotations across Canada.
Prairie farm slapped with plant breeders’ rights infringement penalties
Farmers need to know who they are buying seed from to avoid potentially significant costs
Infringing on Plant Breeders’ Rights (PBR) has cost a large southern Alberta farm a record $737,597. “The settlement relates to unauthorized advertisements and sales of PBR-protected barley and wheat varieties,” Alliance Seed, SeCan and an unnamed seed company said in a news release Wednesday. The settlement “includes the royalties, plus legal fees and penalties,” Todd […] Read more
Bibeau says government committed to federal plant breeding
Seed royalty consultations stalled
The Canadian government is committed to plant breeding, federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau told members of the Canadian Farm Writers’ Federation on Tuesday. Some farmers and seed industry officials suspect Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s (AAFC) variety development work, along with many other programs, will be on the chopping block post-COVID-19 as the government tackles its […] Read more
Beware of Kazakhs wanting to buy seed, agency says
Seed growers and farmers alike are being warned such sales breach breeders' rights rules
Western Canadian seed growers, seed retailers and commercial farmers are being urged not to sell seed to Kazakhs or their agents because it breaches plant breeders’ rights rules. “The basic fact is no Canadian breeder has given permission for their genetics to go to Kazakhstan,” Lorne Hadley, executive director of the Canadian Plant Technology Agency, […] Read more
Refuge sought for West’s midge-tolerant SWS wheats
Refuge seed and other stewardship measures will be needed for the “majority” of soft white spring (SWS) wheat varieties grown on the Prairies, to protect the midge-tolerant trait many of them have now been found to have. That’s the assessment of seed marketing agency SeCan, which sells at least three SWS varieties now found to […] Read more
PBR breach to cost Saskatchewan seed grower $150K
A Saskatchewan seed grower will pay $150,000 to SeCan — the largest penalty in the seed company’s history — for breaching SeCan’s plant breeders rights (PBR). Harvey Marcil of Pasqua Farms near Moose Jaw, Sask., has also agreed to stop making unauthorized seed sales and was expelled from SeCan’s membership, Todd Hyra, SeCan’s business manager […] Read more
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