U.S.-Canada Trade Talks Come Down to Dairy and Alcohol

Virginia Tech agricultural trade director Jason Grant says the remaining U.S.-Canada trade sticking points come down to dairy and alcohol.

Brownfield reports the U.S. recently implemented 50 percent tariff exemptions covering agricultural machinery, energy, fertilizer and other non-agricultural products, without further detail.

Prime Minister Mark Carney said over the weekend that talks with President Trump are continuing, and Grant expects a deal eventually but not without more work.

Source: Brownfield Ag News

U.S.-Canada trade talks are still alive, and Virginia Tech trade economist Jason Grant says the remaining fights come down to dairy and alcohol. He made the case at a recent Ohio State University webinar, Brownfield Ag News reports.

Prime Minister Mark Carney posted over the weekend that discussions with President Trump on a potential deal are continuing.

"Continuing" is the official status of any negotiation where nobody has walked out, and nobody has signed anything either, the diplomatic equivalent of two guys leaning on a tailgate, saying "yup," and going home.

Grant's argument is that the North American supply chain is too tangled for anyone to walk away. The two countries are each other's largest markets and trade heavily across the border.

He expects a deal eventually, and says core bilateral issues remain with both USMCA partners. "Eventually" is carrying that whole sentence on its back like a grain auger in a wet October.

Brownfield also reports the U.S. recently implemented what it calls 50 percent tariff exemptions covering agricultural machinery, energy, fertilizer and other non-agricultural products. No further detail given, which is a very Washington way to announce something.

Machinery and fertilizer are the lines to watch. Both cross that border in serious volume, so any carve-out touches the supply chain Prairie farms buy from and the shortline and potash industries that ship south. Our read, not Brownfield's: the article doesn't say how the exemptions apply in practice, so don't rewrite next year's input budget off one paragraph.

Dairy is the sticking point. Again. Supply management has been the immovable object in round after round, and grain and cattle access tends to sit in the waiting room while it gets argued over. Prairie producers who don't milk a single cow keep finding out they have skin in the dairy fight anyway.

Bottom line: the talks are on, the deal isn't. Trust the process, sure, but don't trust it with your marketing plan.

Former Canadian Wheat Board director Kyle Korneychuk is criticizing the Manitoba Court of King's Bench ruling that dismissed the last remaining lawsuit from the end of the single desk, The Western Producer reports.

Update to Oct. 23: Justice Chris Martin granted summary judgment to Ottawa and G3 Canada on Oct. 7. The 2017 class action, brought by farmer Edward Andrew Dennis for producers who sold through CWB pool accounts from Aug. 1, 2010, to July 31, 2012, claimed more than $91 million. Martin found the grain receipts documented a statutory relationship, not a contract, and found no evidence of bad faith by then-minister Gerry Ritz.

Korneychuk, also a National Farmers Union member, says directors tried to distribute contingency fund money to farmers and were blocked by a federal directive.

Appeal? Unknown. Korneychuk says the plaintiffs are "still reviewing it," and plaintiffs' counsel Louis Century didn't respond to the WP.

So what: the single desk ended in 2012, and its paperwork has now outlived a good number of the wooden elevators it used to fill. If nobody appeals, this chapter finally closes. If they do, set a reminder for sometime around 2030.

Innovation Saskatchewan has launched the Agtech Commercialization Readiness (ACRE) program, offering up to $30,000 for on-farm pilot projects that pair Saskatchewan-based agtech firms with producers and industry partners.

The idea: companies test and refine their tech in real farm settings, collect user feedback and line up customers before commercial launch. It adapts Innovation Saskatchewan's Made In Saskatchewan Technology (MIST) startup pilot program for agriculture.

Minister Warren Kaeding pitched it as a boost for made-in-Saskatchewan innovation. CEO Kari Harvey said real-world testing is often what separates a promising idea from a commercial success.

The Saskatchewan Cattle Association is on board. Research chair Christine Strube said producers want practical tools for animal ID, environmental sustainability, water quality, animal health and forage productivity.

So what: participating farms get early access and a say in how the product turns out. Finally, a program that admits the field is where gadgets go to learn the truth. Every yard in the province has a shed full of tech that worked flawlessly in the brochure and lasted eleven minutes in a Saskatchewan crosswind. No deadline was stated; applications are open at innovationsask.ca/programs/acre/.

The University of Saskatchewan opened two new research centres in its College of Agriculture and Bioresources building: the Nutrien Digital Agriculture Centre and the kihci-okâwîmâw askiy (Great Mother Earth) Knowledge Centre, both funded by a $15 million gift Nutrien made last year.

The digital centre, led by Dr. Steve Shirtliffe, runs three platforms: mapping and analyzing ag ecosystems, speeding up plant breeding and crop research, and helping farmers improve practices under real-world conditions.

The Knowledge Centre, led by Candice Pete-Cardoso, supports land-related teaching, research and engagement of importance to Indigenous communities, including workshops for college staff and faculty.

So what: yesterday we reported two federal research farms waiting on a signature from Ottawa. Today a fertilizer company's cheque opened two new centres a few metres apart. We'll let you decide who's faster with a pen.

About 260 sheep graze a roughly 60-acre fenced paddock at a 75-megawatt solar farm near Airdrie, Alberta, while hay harvesting continues on the rest of the 448-acre property, Energi Media reports.

Mark Owerko, who heads the company that owns the site, says the grazing lease isn't especially lucrative, but it offsets the labour, equipment and fuel that vegetation control would otherwise eat. Grazing started with about 60 head on ground too awkward to hay.

The panels sit on single-axis trackers with rows wide enough for machinery, and only about 20 percent of the soil was disturbed in construction. There are also more than two million honeybees on site, which made over 1,000 pounds of honey last year.

Owerko says the panels shade the flock. Energi notes there were no independent measurements of animal health or productivity, so file that one under "the sheep seem fine."

So what: Alberta's solar debate keeps getting framed as panels versus farmland. For sheep producers, every solar site is a potential grazing contract. Sheep remain the only employees who will show up to a power plant, eat the weeds, take shade breaks and never once ask about the dental plan. They also trust a 75-megawatt array more than Ottawa trusts Washington.

A new survey of Canadian farmers found just 11 percent take part in structured peer groups, RFD-TV reports, citing RealAg Radio host Shaun Haney. The article doesn't name who ran the survey or the sample size.

The biggest barrier is privacy, cited by 40 percent. Showing your cash flow, machinery debt and land rent to the guy you'll be bidding against for the next quarter is, understandably, a tough sell. Another 14 percent questioned whether it's worth the money.

More than half of participants valued a third-party facilitator. Haney suggests groups spread over a wider area, or groups with non-farm entrepreneurs, for anyone who can't stomach sharing numbers with the neighbours.

So what: Haney cited research that only about a third of North American farmers fully understand their true fixed cost per acre. Which means a lot of operations are running on gut feel and a calculator from 1997. Trust issues, meet spreadsheet.