People News
Makhteshim Agan of North America, Canada has hired Donald Surgeoner as its eastern business manager and Canadian Quali-Pro manager, handling customer relations and sales for the expanding crop protection and turf grass product lineups. Most recently, Surgeoner was commercial manager with Engage Agro. MANA Canada has also added Jodi Starodub as business services manager, a multi-faceted role involving operations, supply chain management, customer relations and the execution of business plans. Starodub brings 15 years of strategic management in sales and marketing to the company.
After more than 18 years with CropLife Canada, Lorne Hepworth has announced he will retire in February 2014. Previously, Hepworth was the association’s vice-president for Western Canada, from 1992 to ’93. Hepworth also spent nine years as a member of Saskatchewan’s legislative assembly during which time he served as minister of agriculture, as well as several other ministries, including finance and education.
Peter Entz of Richardson International will serve as the Canadian Seed Trade Association’s next president. Entz took office at CSTA’s annual meeting held in Quebec City. The membership also elected its 2013–14 board of directors. Re-elected for a second term were Jeff Bertholet of BASF and Kevin McCallum of DL Seeds. New directors include George Lammertsen of Bayer CropScience, Georges Chaussé of La Coop Fédérée, Marty Vermey of Hyland Seeds and Duane Johnson of Syngenta.
Novozymes BioAg has announced that Rob Chomyn has joined the company as its Canadian marketing manager. Chomyn is a veteran of the Canadian agronomy and financial sectors with 25 years of experience. He will be responsible for the overall marketing and communications strategy for Novozymes BioAg Canada, working out of Novozymes BioAg’s Saskatoon office.
Product News
XiteBio Technologies Inc. has received approval of XiteBio SoyRhizo soybean inoculant for the Canadian market. XiteBio SoyRhizo is the first commercial soybean inoculant that uses advanced growth promoting technology. SoyRhizo features an all-in-one package, ready-to-use formulation that is easy to apply and substantially boosts soybean growth, nodulation and yield. In field trials, soybean yield was increased by three to nine bushels per acre on average. SoyRhizo is the first product of its kind to be available to Canadian soybean growers from XiteBio Technologies and its Canadian distributors.
Canadian producers can now hold their fields in the palms of their hands as Farm Credit Canada introduces the new FM PRO Mobile application. FM PRO Mobile enables producers and agronomists to enter all of their field records on the spot, mark target areas, track soil testing and geo-reference photos and then safely transmit the data to a home computer. “Smartphones are a growing necessity for farmers’ day-to-day work,” says Glen Kroeker, director of FCC management software. “This is FCC’s very first application for smartphones and tablets, so we are really excited about this enhanced tool.”
Richardson International has grown its business to offer food manufacturers an expanded line of high-quality functional ingredients. Through the acquisition of Viterra’s oat and specialty grain business earlier this year, Richardson Milling now has the most extensive oat supply chain in North America. With an extensive grower network and four strategically-located processing mills in Canada and the United States, Richardson Milling is the largest oat miller in North America and offers food manufacturers a full range of oat ingredients including oat groats, flakes, flour and bran. The portfolio expands into further value-added ingredients such as coated whole grains and granola clusters.
Business News
DLF-TRIFOLIUM A/S, a Danish world market leader in temperate grass and clover seed, has signed an agreement for the acquisition of Pickseed Canada and Pickseed USA, including Seed Research of Oregon, by the DLF-TRIFOLIUM Group. Pickseed is a North American leader in the development, production and distribution of turfgrass and forage crop seeds. Pickseed has eight locations including offices, warehouses, plants, and research and distribution facilities across Canada and Oregon. Pickseed operates under the Pickseed, Mapleseed, Seed Research of Oregon and TurfOne brands.
Monsanto Canada has announced details of a long-range plan focused on breeding corn hybrids with earlier relative maturities that are adapted to the diverse geography and climatic conditions found across much of Western Canada. Monsanto will invest $100 million during the next 10 years to produce corn hybrids that could be widely grown across a potential geography of 26 million acres. Taking into consideration crop rotations, this could result in an estimated annual western corn market of eight to 10 million acres by 2025.
Viterra Inc. is investing more than $20 million to upgrade four of its Saskatchewan grain terminals at White Star, Humboldt, Waldron and Ituna. The upgrades will result in increased rail capacity, with White Star and Humboldt also having significant storage capacity added. “By improving our rail and storage capacities in targeted areas, we are creating further value for our farm customers at the local level, as well as our suppliers and end-use customers across North America and beyond,” says Kyle Jeworski, Viterra’s president and CEO for North America.
Bayer SeedGrowth is the new name for Bayer CropScience’s seed treatment business. “We are proud to be the only company that offers a fully-integrated and comprehensive system for on-seed applications,” says Kerry Grossweiler, SeedGrowth equipment and coatings manager for Bayer. Bayer SeedGrowth offers four segments to its customers. The first are products that can serve as seed treatments, such as Poncho/VOTiVO. “These high-demand products for both corn and soybeans provide insect protection for the seed,” says Grossweiler. The second and third segments are coatings and equipment. “They work in conjunction with one another, as the coatings provide flowability of seed through the treating equipment.” Finally, there’s service. “We provide all the testing of products and training our customers will need to be successful in seed treating.” Next for Bayer is a new product to prevent sudden death syndrome in the form of an on-seed application, to be launched in 2015 pending approvals.
Industry News
The Canadian government has announced funding of $1.25 million over five years for the creation of a forage research chair at the University of Saskatchewan. The forage research chair will focus on forage breeding with an emphasis on developing new forage varieties with improved yields. A dedicated forage research chair will result in new options for Saskatchewan producers to help improve profitability, competitiveness and sustainability in the long term.
A new Canadian Wheat Alliance initiative will co-ordinate research and development projects to improve the yield of Canadian wheat by reducing losses under extreme weather conditions such as drought, heat, cold and diseases. The CWA will invest approximately $97 million during the first five years of this initiative to support research to improve the profitability of the Canadian wheat industry, advance the development of Canada’s wheat crops and help ensure the global competitiveness of Canadian farmers. The Alliance will also study ways to more efficiently use chemical fertilizers to help improve the environmental sustainability of Canadian wheat. This network combines the expertise of the National Research Council of Canada, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the government of Saskatchewan and the University of Saskatchewan. The government of Canada will invest $85 million in funding and in-kind contributions toward the alliance. The government of Saskatchewan has committed an additional $10 million to support wheat research in the province during the next five years, of which $5 million is dedicated to support CWA activities and leverage contributions from other stakeholders. The University of Saskatchewan is contributing $1.4 million per year of in-kind contributions.
A new $10-million state-of-the-art greenhouse facility has opened at the Southern Crop Protection and Food Research Centre in Ontario. Farmers will benefit from research focused on improving crop quality, productivity, and disease and insect resistance. Work undertaken in the greenhouse will help researchers reduce the reliance of cereal grain crops on commercial nitrogen fertilizer, use protein-trafficking technologies to develop plant-based vaccines as an alternative to antibiotics, improve the nutritional quality of dry beans, and develop higher yielding, higher quality alfalfa cultivars for the cattle industry.
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