Featured

Despite the wet conditions, seeding progress was made throughout much of Manitoba last week and is now estimated to be 83% complete. Canola and soybean planting advanced, with 71% of canola acres planted and 82% of soybean acres planted.

CN and CPKC Rail supplied a combined 98% of hopper cars ordered in grain week 43, a modest improvement from the 93% order fulfillment performance seen in week 42.

Insects: Both striped and crucifer flea beetles are present. In most regions, reports of high levels of damage to canola are minimal so far.

A farmer in the Humboldt area says seeding has been smooth sailing but could now use heat to aid crop development. George Hinz says this month has been the total opposite of the winter, which was drier than normal.

Seeding progress in Saskatchewan went from half-way done to three-quarters of the way through. The provincial crop report, released Thursday, has seeding at 77 per cent complete, up from 56 per cent last week.

The search for volunteers is on for Canadian Western Agribition (CWA). In partnership with SaskEnergy, CWA launched its 2024 recruitment campaign for volunteers with a new incentive program.

While pay will always remain an important factor in attracting new employees to the agriculture sector, other issues such as work flexibility, vacation time and sick days could make the difference in hiring and retaining high quality workers.

Seeding progress has been observed in many areas of Manitoba this past week and is now at 64% complete. Producers have focused on planting corn (80% complete), spring wheat (87% complete) barley (79% complete) and peas (96% complete).

Statistics Canada has released a blizzard of farm income and expense statistics for 2022, 2023 and the first part of this year. In both 2022 and 2023, Alberta had higher farm cash receipts than Saskatchewan.