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Nick Cowan joins SeCan
Crops, News

Nick Cowan joins SeCan

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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
Matt Hooyer joins SeCan
Crops, News

Matt Hooyer joins SeCan

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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
(Jack Dykinga photo courtesy ARS/USDA)
Crops

Prairie farm slapped with plant breeders’ rights infringement penalties

Farmers need to know who they are buying seed from to avoid potentially significant costs

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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
File photo of Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau speaking to media in Winnipeg in March 2019. (Dave Bedard photo)
Crops

Bibeau says government committed to federal plant breeding

Seed royalty consultations stalled

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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
File photo of a rye field in Kazakhstan. (Stsmhn/iStock/Getty Images)
Crops

Beware of Kazakhs wanting to buy seed, agency says

Seed growers and farmers alike are being warned such sales breach breeders' rights rules

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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
Soft white spring wheat. (StonehengeOrganics.com)
Crops

Refuge sought for West’s midge-tolerant SWS wheats

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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
(Dave Bedard photo)
Crops

PBR breach to cost Saskatchewan seed grower $150K

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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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