Responsible Grain...it is a national code of practice being developed to show Canadian farmers care about the environment. It will address consumer and customer priorities and provide practical advice for farmers to continue to improve their practices.

Committee chair Ted Menzies from Claresholm, Alberta says the draft code, developed by farmers and industry experts, has been completed and is now open for consultation. Ted will share why it is important to have a code to share with our customers at home and abroad.

Agriculture is a key driver of Canadian economic growth. Achieving export goals will only happen through the development of a strong crops sector. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada along with Cereals Canada have established wheat research priorities from now to 2022.

Victoria Linden is the research director with Cereals Canada.
She will share those priorities and why it's important to revisit these goals every few years.

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North America is a role model when it comes to reducing the environmental footprint of livestock production.

Dr. Frank Mitloehner is a professor with the University of California Davis. He told delegates at the recent Saskatchewan Swine Symposium the public needs to recognize the contributions of livestock agriculture to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

He said the most pressing need is to get the countries that are not efficient in producing animal sourced food to change, and that objective can be met while, at the same time, minimizing the carbon footprint.

Shelby Corey wears many hats. She is a wife and mother. She is a rancher, a rural municipal councillor, and a development officer with 4-H Saskatchewan. Life is hectic. Shelby will share how balancing the farm, kids, career, and everything else can be overwhelming but there is a way to find balance.

She will share some of the things she has learned to avoid burnout.

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Canada's new agriculture minister spent some time in Saskatchewan. Heath MacDonald toured around various areas---Regina, Indian Head, and Davidson and met with farm leaders from the grain and oilseed, beef, and dairy sectors.

Saskatchewan agriculture Minister Daryl Harrison also accompanied MacDonald on all stops during his tour. MacDonald will share more on the conversations and concerns of farmers during his visit.

Prairie farmers may face a potential rust threat this year

Dr. Kelly Turkington, a research scientist in plant pathology with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada at Lacombe, says rust spores typically originate from the Pacific Northwest and the Texas-to-Nebraska corridor in the U.S.

These spores, which include stripe rust, leaf rust, stem rust, and crown rust in oats, are carried by the wind and usually start appearing in the prairies in June. Over the years, research scientists, breeders, and pathologists have been working on developing crop varieties with increased rust resistance with moderately resistant (MR), or resistant (R) rating can control the disease effectively, making fungicide application unnecessary.

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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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