Farm Credit Canada's Food and Beverage Report for 2025 shows in detail the challenges each manufacturing sector faces due to the ongoing trade dispute with the U.S. as well as changing consumer habits.

But it also shows opportunity through those challenges. Senior Economist Amanda Norris will be looking at two sectors in particular: grain and oilseed milling and meat.

Saskatchewan Pulse Growers is partnering with provincially owned, private plant breeding company J4 Agri-Science to develop improved lines of faba bean. It is the second major collaboration SPG has entered into since its long-term agreement with the University of Saskatchewan Crop Development Centre ran out more than four years ago. SPG provides upfront investments with any future royalties shared by the two parties.

J4 Agri-Science was founded by two farmers and has its main testing sites in northeast Saskatchewan. Dr. Jodi Souter is a plant breeder and co-founder of J4-Agri-Science. She'll talk about the collaboration.

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A Montreal area-based farmer and agrotourism operator is taking steps to help maintain rare livestock genetics, particularly the Lacombe breed of pig. Established in 1982, Quinn Farm is a 200-acre agricultural and agrotourism operation that produces a variety of horticultural crops, more than 18 varieties of apples, Christmas and balsam trees, raises chickens, pigs and sheep, including many rare breeds, and houses a large farm store that features the farm's own produce, and a variety of local products.

Farm cofounder Elwood Quinn says the public's awareness of the importance of maintaining genetic diversity, even within the one percent of those directly involved in food production, is minimal.

The Canadian Grain Commission (CGC) is getting the word out about its Harvest Sample Program.
The program encourages producers to send in a grain sample to the Commission for grading, then once the sample returns to the producer with a grade, they can use it for marketing purposes. Getting involved comes at no cost.

Kerri Pleskach is the Program Manager of Analytical Services. She says farmers wanting to participate can reach out to them by phone, email, or in person at their booth at one of the many farm shows throughout the year.

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Quick crop establishment lowers flea beetle risk. Growers responding to a Canola Council of Canada survey indicated flea beetles were the number one economic risk to canola last year . . . as well as 2022 and 2020.

Flea beetle populations vary from year-to-year . . . but seeding depth and weather are 
the two main variables. Keith Gabert is an agronomy specialist with the Canola Council of Canada. He shares some tips for canola growers

Add the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association to the list of farm groups surprised by Heath MacDonald's appointment to federal agriculture portfolio. Many were expecting Kody Blois to maintain the role.

Kaitlyn Kitzan, treasurer and Director with the Wheat Growers speaks to the appointment and some of the issues the new ag minister will have to face.

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Technology that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to detect weeds and other crop pests while passing over a field could reduce pesticide use by up to 95 per cent, maintaining crop yield, saving farmers roughly $50 per acre per growing season.

A $26.2 million project is being led by Precision.ai, Sure Growth Solutions, Exceed Grain Marketing, and the Global Institute for Food Security at the University of Saskatchewan. The partners are together investing $13.4 million into the project, with Protein Industries Canada investing the remaining $12.8 million.

Dan McCann is the founder and CEO of Precision.ai. Dan will talk about this multi-million-dollar project and how it can benefit farmers and the environment.

There are numerous resources available to the entire agriculture sector relating to weather and climate conditions.Maps and information about agroclimate - which is the relationship between climate and agriculture - conditions, events, and impacts can be accessed at no cost.

The information comes from weather stations and satellites but it's the people on the ground that help give a true indication of what's going on.

Agroclimate Specialist for Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Trevor Hadwen is with us to talk about how the public can get involved in this important work.

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Control your money so it does not control you.

Vanessa Stockbrugger is a former investment banker on Toronto’s Bay Street who went on to found and run Womencents. She says having more money does not necessarily fix things – instead, people need a strategy or action plan to achieve their financial goals.
But what happens when that business is a farm.

To reduce stress, she says people must have power and control over their finances.
She'll discuss strategies for dealing with some of the big decision including when to save, when to spend and when to pay down debt.

It's a collaboration that brings together the complete beef research cycle. The University of Saskatchewan's Livestock and Forage Centre of Excellence, located southeast of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan opened in 2018 and includes a two thousand head cattle feeding operation, cattle research facility, buildings for drying forages, a 350 head cow-calf research facility and forage research plots.

U of S College of Engineering professor and research Dr. Terry Fonstad will tell us about the collaboration between areas of the university that truly gives the full picture of what happens from the pasture to plate. He tells us what makes this research facility unique from any other.

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The dust has settled on the federal election and Canadian farmers will be looking to Canada's newly elected minority Liberal government to resolve Canada's trade disputes with both the United States and China. We talk to Florian Possberg, a partner with Polar Pork, about the tariff threats and its impact on the agriculture sector.

The Canadian Federation of Agriculture is waiting to see what the next steps will be in the days ahead. President Keith Currie says they want to talk about with the government revolves around three areas - competitiveness, resiliency, and rules-based trade.

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Amid a simmering global trade war, a former Manitoba Liberal leader is calling on Canadian agriculture to put a greater emphasis on supplying more of Canada's food needs, adding more value to Canadian agricultural products within Canada-- and diversifying Canada's export markets.

Dr. Jon Gerrard says retaliatory tariffs imposed by China on Canadian canola, pea, pork and seafood imports / along with uncertainty over U.S. duties is pressuring Canadian farmers.

There has been substantial progress over the past year in the effort to coordinate and enhance the control of wild pigs in Canada.

In addition to the damage wild pigs inflict on the landscape and on crops - they present the potential to transmit disease to domestic pigs, the greatest threat being African Swine Fever. Erica Charlton, the Director of the Emergency Management Division of Animal Health Canada says the use of environmental DNA to identify the presence or absence of invasive wild pigs is gaining traction.

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With a lack of temporary foreign workers are higher food prices and fewer food choices on the horizon for Canadians?

University of Calgary research associate Robert Falconer has released his second report on the role of temporary foreign workers in the Canadian agriculture sector. He said if there was any attempt to manage the food supply without these workers it is a strong possibility.

Robert will talk about this latest research project and provide some short- and long-term solutions to this problem.
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Amanda Radke is a blogger and South Dakota rancher who speaks out on issues that impact the cattle industry.

She recently spoke to the virtual Canadian Beef Industry conference about fake meats, environmental and animal rights activists and finding ways to bridge the urban and rural divide.

Amanda will share her strategies for connecting with consumers, ignoring the trolls and how ranchers can be a trusted source of information.

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A farmer from southwestern Manitoba is calling for a patient and reasoned response from the federal government to the imposition of reciprocal tariffs by the United States on its trading partners to avoid escalating a brewing trade war.

Jim Downey says it's hard to read what's happening in the U.S. from day-to-day but at this point, we still have the ability to trade freely with the United States.

Spring offers pork producers an opportunity to take steps to improve biosecurity on their farms. The Swine Health Information Center has identified seasonal decreases in case positivity for PED, delta coronaviruses and mycoplasma; a seasonal decrease in PRRS case positivity, mostly in wean to finish with North Carolina and Iowa; and reporting higher than expected increases in PRRS positive cases and, over the past four years, no positive identification of transmissible gastroenteritis. SHIC Associate Director Dr. Lisa Becton says the warmer weather is welcome.

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Retaliatory duties imposed on U.S. pork in response to the Trump Administration's tariff threats will have a far more negative effect on Canadian market hog prices than U.S. duties on imports from Canada.

As North American farmers await the next moves in Donald Trump's on again off again tariff war, analysts are monitoring developments in the U.S. as well as the international reaction to them.

Paul Marchand, a Senior Risk Management Analyst with HAMS Marketing Services says the price for a Canadian market hog delivered to a federally inspected slaughter plant in Canada is established in the U.S. so any response that lowers the U.S. base price will lower the Canadian price for hogs.

Uncertainty around tariffs can impact a farmer's decision on what to grow this year. Retired Agronomist Thom Weir says it's even more important to understand your fertility needs and what adjustments can be made to keep a little more cash in a farmer's pocket.

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