At first glance, it doesn’t look like it could be a meal. It’s tempting to close the door and start from scratch.

Look again. That pasta, pepper and sauce are already halfway to supper. All it takes is a little creativity, a few dishes you know by heart and permission to cook without a recipe. Suddenly, you have a new meal that saves money, cuts waste and might be one of the best things you make all week. That’s what being a Leftover Legend is all about.

According to Love Food Hate Waste Canada, leftovers are the third most wasted food in Canadian homes, after vegetables and fruit. The average household throws out about 140 kilograms of edible food a year, at a cost of more than $1,300. Leftovers make up 13 per cent of that, roughly 18 kilograms. That food was already bought, prepped and cooked. Every leftover you eat is putting your hard-earned money, time and effort to good use.

Nobody put leftovers in the fridge intending to throw them out. But somehow, they get pushed to the side and soon you’re wondering if they’re still safe to eat. That’s why Love Food Hate Waste Canada is running its Be a Leftover Legend campaign from October 19 to November 13, with tips and inspiration to help you use leftovers safely and make them part of your routine.

Personally, I love leftovers. They give me a head start on prep and narrow down what to make. If I have pasta and peppers, my options are already more focused. What really helps me is knowing a few go-to dishes and treating them as formulas rather than fixed recipes. Once you know the basics of a soup, an egg dish, a fried rice or a pasta salad, it becomes easier to create meals with whatever’s in front of you. Here’s the process I use to decide what to make:

Step 1. Take inventory. Sort what you have into protein, starch, vegetables and flavour boosters, such as sauces, herbs or cheese. Consider what needs to be used first, what you have the most of and what you’re in the mood for.

Step 2. Pick a framework. Let the texture and makeup of your leftovers guide you.

Soft, wet or saucy leftovers work well in soups. Soften onion, garlic and celery, add broth and simmer. Stir in anything already cooked near the end and heat through.

Firm, dry leftovers work well in fried rice. Toss day-old rice with vegetables, leftover meat, scrambled eggs and a splash of soy sauce for a tasty Leftover Legend Fried Rice (see recipe on this page).

A little bit of a lot of things? Eggs are the ultimate cleanup crew. Warm leftover vegetables and protein in a pan and pour beaten eggs over top for a scramble, quiche, hash or frittata.

Cooked pasta makes a cool pasta salad. Mix cold pasta with crisp vegetables, cooked meat and a flavourful dressing for an easy-to-pack lunch. See below for how I turned leftover mac and cheese into a tasty pasta salad.

Step 3. Fill the gaps. Round out your meal with other finds from your fridge, freezer or pantry. Missing protein? Add canned beans or fish. Short on vegetables? Use canned or frozen. Need more starch? Cook extra rice, pasta or potatoes. Finish with spices, fresh herbs or a dash of lemon juice, hot sauce or chili oil.

As for whether leftovers are still safe to eat, it starts with how you cool and store them. Health Canada recommends refrigerating leftovers promptly in shallow containers and eating them within two to three days or freezing them. Reheat to 74°C and bring soups and sauces to a full rolling boil. When in doubt, throw it out and create a plan for your next leftovers.

Being a Leftover Legend is knowing there will always be leftovers and making them part of your everyday habits, so they become tomorrow’s meal, not next week’s compost.

Leftover Legend Fried Rice

Fried rice is made for dried, crumbly day-old rice. It works perfectly when tossed in a hot pan combined with whatever firm, cooked vegetables and protein you have on hand.

Ingredients

2-3 tbsp. vegetable oil, divided

3 eggs, beaten

2 green onions (scallions), greens and whites separated

1 ½ c. vegetables (fresh, frozen or cooked)

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 c. pre-cooked protein (chicken, ham, pork, beef, seafood, tofu or edamame)

3-4 c. cooked rice, brown or white

Seasonings

2 tbsp. soy sauce or tamari

salt to taste

1-2 tsp. sesame oil

Garnishes

green onion greens

chili oil

sesame seeds

Method

1. Heat wok or large frying pan over medium-high heat, add 2 tsp. oil and heat until shimmering. Scramble and cook eggs in pan, remove and set aside.

2. Add more oil and sauté white portion of green onions and raw vegetables until softened. Add frozen vegetables and cook until heated and tender. Add cooked vegetables with minced garlic and cook just until garlic is fragrant.

3. Add pre-cooked proteins and heat through.

4. Add leftover rice, breaking up any clumps, and cook 1-2 minutes to dry out. Add scrambled eggs and seasoning. Stir well and heat through. Taste and adjust as desired.

5. Top with favourite garnishes and enjoy.

Makes: 4 servings

Source: Love Food Hate Waste Canada, lovefoodhatewaste.ca/recipes/leftover-legend-fried-rice-recipe

Leftover Legend Mac and Cheese Pasta Salad

My husband enjoyed this mac and cheese pasta salad more than the original dinner! A simple dressing and a few leftovers were all it took.

Ingredients

Creamy dressing

• 2 tbsp. mayonnaise
• 2 tbsp. plain yogurt
• 1 tsp. Dijon mustard
• 1-2 tsp. lemon juice, pickle juice or vinegar
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2-4 tbsp. milk (as needed)

Salad

• 3 c. cold leftover mac and cheese
• 1 c. cooked rotisserie chicken, diced
• 1 c. sweet peppers, chopped
• 1 c. thawed, frozen peas
• ½ c. cubed cheddar cheese
• 2 tbsp. chopped green onion, chives or parsley

In large salad bowl, whisk mayonnaise, yogurt, Dijon and lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper.

Break up cold mac and cheese and stir into dressing, adding milk as needed.

Add chicken, peppers, peas and cheese. Toss to coat evenly.

Taste and adjust. Garnish with fresh herbs and enjoy.

Makes: 2 servings

Source: Getty Stewart, based on Leftover Legend Pasta Salad lovefoodhatewaste.ca/recipes/leftover-legend-pasta-salad

But when it comes to something we all do every day — talking — certain conversations can suddenly make us look for other things — anything — to do.

Avoiding challenging conversations, however, has big implications for both the health of the farm family and the farm business. It may seem easier in the moment, but it often makes conflict worse over time, says Little Britain, Ont., resiliency expert Beverly Beuermann-King. “Avoidance can amplify conflict,” she says. “Misunderstandings grow, frustration builds and trust erodes resulting in high levels of stress, anxiety and emotional fatigue.”

Difficult conversations are part of every workplace, but when an employee, partner, co-worker or boss is also a parent, child, sibling or in-law, it gets a lot more complicated. With years of history and family dynamics at play, some important but hard conversations aren’t happening — and those missed conversations are taking a heavy toll.

Poor communication can also stifle productivity and innovation and lead to procrastination about necessary decisions, says Lydia Carpenter, a farm succession coach from Belmont, Man. This can mean being reactive instead of proactive, resulting in chaos and missed opportunities.

Unresolved conflict can also cause family members to leave the farm operation and even lead to the breakdown of the family unit, says Amy Hughes, a mediator and farm coach in North Yorkshire, England. “I’ve seen it tear families apart,” she says.

What kind of conversations aren’t happening?

Beuermann-King, who grew up on a family farm, has noticed a pattern in the types of conversations that aren’t taking place.

Discussions about money are often problematic. Members of the older generation may make financial decisions without consulting the younger generation, or they may keep the details of a will secret.

Another example: when someone new, who has different values, comes into the farm family, it can be a source of conflict. Values around work-life balance or how money should be spent are frequently at odds.

A lack of fairness is another issue that often leaves family members frustrated. For instance, if a daughter or daughter-in-law isn’t given equal recognition despite doing the same work and putting in the same number of hours as other team members, it can be a source of deep tension.

Beuermann-King says there can be a sense that it’s futile to even raise an issue. People may think “that’s just the way Dad is and he won’t change,” for example.

Some topics open old emotional wounds, even going back generations, Carpenter says. These can feel emotionally overwhelming. And if you’ve had a bad experience in the past bringing up a topic, you can become conflict-avoidant, she adds.

In some cases, important conversations are avoided because those involved don’t know how to kick-start discussions, says Carpenter. Transition planning, for example, is not only difficult but complex. People may not have the language they need to talk about it. As examples, the senior generation may not know how to talk to the next generation about what it will take to farm successfully, or they may be concerned the younger generation doesn’t have what it takes to carry on.

What triggers resistance

When conversations aren’t happening, Hughes has noticed it may be that the subject triggers a sense of loss. With farm transitions, the senior generation may be experiencing a loss of identity or a loss of control. “They may be thinking, ‘What am I if I am not the boss?’”

When adopting new technology, there could be a sense of loss of competency, and when decisions involve change and risk, there could be a loss of certainty.

In her workshops, Hughes teaches farmers to practice active listening. She advises that they ask open-ended questions (questions that require more than a simple “yes” or “no” answer) to ensure that they understand what the other person is saying. Once you understand the underlying resistance, you can plan the conversations you want to have and what you want to say, she says.

Beuermann-King agrees it’s important to seek clarity as well as empathy. She developed the C.L.E.A.R. Conversations Framework™ as a way to promote constructive dialogue.

Create clarity. Ask “How do you see it? What are you concerned might happen? What do you need from me?”

Lead with understanding. Try to understand where the other person is coming from.

Align on direction. For example, what are common goals? To increase productivity? To stay together as a family? It’s not about winning. It’s about how to move ahead with these goals in mind.

Reinforce the next step. How do we follow through? How do we move ahead?

She emphasizes that the goal is not to try to get rid of conflict, because conflict is not inherently bad. It’s the way we approach it that can be problematic. “You’re going to have disagreements. It’s how we tackle them that determines success,” she says.

Unfortunately, Beuermann-King says that few people grow up learning good communication skills or seeing healthy communication modelled by their families. “Often, we have not been taught how to deal with conflict, which can lead to assumptions, resentment and a lack of accountability.” The result is a culture where conflict is avoided and feedback is feared.

“In many cases, people fall into these habits without realizing the damage they are doing … especially if those around them have become too exhausted to name it,” she says.

Getting things unstuck

It’s also possible that team members are unaware that poor communication is the cause of ongoing dissatisfaction. “If you’re frustrated; if you know some topics are off-limits; if you’re walking on eggshells or picking and choosing topics; if it’s sucking the joy out of farming,” these are signs better communication is needed, Beuermann-King says.

Unfortunately, there are instances when all the communications training in the world won’t move a conversation forward, says Fairfax, Man., ag leadership coach, Kelly Dobson. “Sometimes we don’t even realize what’s getting in our own way. You may know that you need to have a conversation with Dad about sharing finances, for example, but in your family, there’s an unwritten rule that you don’t talk about money, and it’s holding you back.”

In his coaching practice, he helps farmers identify “the why, the underlying thinking that’s getting in the way.” In his experience, once they understand that, “they find the right time, right place, etc. to have those conversations.”

He divides these unconscious thinking patterns into four categories:

• Being risk averse: fear that something could go wrong or that you might get shot down.
• Being a “people pleaser”: those attentive to the needs of others have difficulty dealing with conflict.
• Prioritizing peace and harmony: those who choose to follow the herd rather than speak up.
• Being passive: those who avoid conflict by leaving the conversation or “checking out” mentally.

He admits it requires people to be open to personal change but says, “Once they can see what’s been getting in their way, they have more choice about what they do next.”

Clear conversations create better decisions that add up quickly to better results, continues Dobson. “Often the most challenging issues tend to have the highest impact either positively or negatively. Get good at those and your business thrives.

“We can know what we should do and still find ourselves doing something else,” he says. “Getting curious about what’s behind that can open up different choices.”

Resources to learn more

Manitoba ag leadership coach Kelly Dobson says the gap between knowing what to do and being able to do it is one of the reasons he co-developed the new Grow Thru It program.

“This initiative focuses on developing the person behind the decisions, their ability to think clearly, communicate, shift their approach and act effectively, especially when things get difficult.” Dobson says that agriculture has been exceptionally good at developing technical knowledge and adopting new technology, but has paid far less attention to developing the people expected to put all of it to work.

Learn more about Dobson’s Grow Thru It program, geared to help farmers develop their people management skills, at leader-shift.ca

For more information about the C.L.E.A.R. Conversations Framework, visit worksmartlivesmart.com/effective-communication-leadership-success.

A few books you may want to add to your winter reading pile:

• Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, by Greg McKeown
• High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out, by Amanda Ripley
• The Psychology of Money, by Morgan Housel

But the job of the modern farmer has changed.

Many industry experts believe the next generation of farmers will need a vastly different skillset than those before — and different training or education to support this.

When Taylor Phillips was growing up on his family farm in southeast Saskatchewan, he says the thinking about education was traditional.

“We used to be like, ‘Go to (the University of Saskatchewan), get an agronomy degree.’ That used to be the path.”

Now, that path could look different.

Through his work as chief technology officer at Maverick Ag, where he helps farmers adopt new technology and practices to maximize efficiency and profits, Phillips has come to believe some of the most important skills will be geared less toward a single specialization and more toward broad, integrated thinking.

“Papa built the farm and mechanized and grew the farm, and it’s our generation that has to manage the farm,” he says.

And managing a farm today is much more complex than it once was.

“The risk is higher and the margins are tighter. (You) can’t just have a finance brain. You can’t just have an agronomic brain,” he says.

Ted Cawkwell, a Saskatchewan farmer and farmland realtor, has watched the same shift happen over generations in his own family.

“When my dad started farming, he said as long as you could grow good crops, you made money.”

“That is not the case anymore.”

Beyond growing a good crop: finance, strategy and risk management

Chief among the management skills that will remain critical for farmers in the future is financial literacy, says Eric Micheels, head of the department of agricultural and resource economics at the University of Saskatchewan.

“Knowing your cost per acre … cost per bushel or cost per tonne is really important,” he says.

Farm managers also need to understand working capital, debt, taxation and profit-and-loss statements, while thinking strategically about the long-term future of the business.

And rather than think only about the next crop year, Micheels says farmers need to ask where they want the business to be years or even a generation from now.

“Are we building a business that the next generation wants to run?”

Risk management will also become increasingly important as farms continue to face everything from trade barriers and political shifts to supply-chain disruptions, he says.

Leigh Anderson, senior economist with Farm Credit Canada, agrees, but says financial and risk-management skills go hand in hand. Future farmers need to know their numbers well enough to understand not just how their operation performs in a good year, but whether it can withstand a bad one.

“If we have drought, if your yield was down quite a bit, can you still cash-flow your payments? That’s where knowing their numbers come in,” says Anderson.

Cawkwell believes today’s farmers already have strong business skills. They’ve had to since good crops alone no longer guarantee a profit.

“The farmers that have even got to this point today have had tremendous business acumen,” he says.

But for the next generation, those skills will only become more crucial, as the industry faces a growing number of unknowns.

From jack-of-all-trades to general contractor

Although tomorrow’s farmers won’t need to be experts at everything, they will need enough basic understanding of running a farm, including agronomy, finance, human resources, technology and operations.

They will be able to see how all the different pieces of the business fit together, says Phillips, as well as discern when something doesn’t look right.

“You need to have a generalist knowledge enough to say, ‘That doesn’t pass the sniff test. I need to go deeper’.”

Saskatchewan grain farmer Jeff Wilkinson sees his own role evolving in much the same way.

His farm, based in southeastern Saskatchewan, already hires professional agronomists and uses an outside company for marketing. As western Canadian farms trend larger and more complex, he expects the need for outside specialization to increase.

In light of this, he believes farmers are increasingly becoming more like general contractors, pulling together specialized pieces strategically rather than trying to personally be the best at each one.

“You just can’t be as good as them,” Wilkinson says of the specialists his farm relies on.

Anderson agrees. He says the old idea that a good farmer should be able to do everything themselves is becoming less realistic.

“If I’m not good at being a mechanic, you rely on someone else to do it right.”

Anderson says that increasingly, the skill is knowing what you need to understand yourself, what you can delegate and whose advice you can trust.

Data literacy, sound judgement and adaptability

AI, automation, robotics and increasingly sophisticated farm data systems will undoubtedly continue to change the job of farming.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean every young farmer needs to become a programmer, experts say. Instead, they need to be comfortable with technology and willing to learn how to use new tools.

They will also need to know how to analyze and interpret large amounts of data and turn it into usable knowledge, says Dr. Stuart Smyth, a University of Saskatchewan professor specializing in agricultural biotechnology and innovation.

For example, Smyth points to a group of young farmers who recently developed an app to calculate the most economical seeding route around trees and sloughs in a field, saving themselves approximately nine hours of seeding time.

Smyth believes that type of homegrown innovation — combining agricultural knowledge with data, education and digital tools to solve practical problems — will distinguish successful farms.

Another skill that will remain critically important is sound judgement, says Anderson.

Although in the future there will be more data than ever about weather, commodity prices, input costs, interest rates and markets, farmers will still need to be able to navigate, analyze and evaluate the data, and test it against their own knowledge and instincts.

Furthermore, they will also still need to be able to make decisions without knowing exactly what comes next, Anderson says.

He uses fertilizer purchasing as an example. A farmer can’t know for certain whether fertilizer will cost more at seeding than it does in the fall, but historical data can provide useful probabilities.

A smart farmer might then use that information to develop a flexible strategy, purchasing early, for example, instead of taking an all-or-nothing approach.

“Sometimes doing nothing is … worse than making a decision and being wrong,” he says.

Cawkwell says another critical skill will underlie all of this technology: a willingness to adapt.

He points to the example of his grandfather, who farmed when diesel tractors were first available. While many other farmers were wary of the new technology and what it might mean for their horses, Cawkwell says his grandfather bought a tractor early, used it on the farm and found additional work for it during the winter.

He sees today’s technological transformation in much the same way.

“Whatever new innovation is coming along, you got to lean into it, because you can’t stop this stuff from coming. You just need to lean into it and find a way to make it work for your farm.”

So what should the next generation learn?

None of this means traditional agricultural education or farm knowledge has become obsolete.

Wilkinson is adamant that the fundamentals of grain farming remain the same.

“You have to control the weeds and get the right fertility down and seed the right crops at the right time,” he says.

What’s changing is everything being layered on top of those fundamentals.

Smyth believes formal education will still play an important role in preparing farmers for that complexity, as research suggests education is associated with a greater willingness to adopt innovation.

He also believes there’s much value for agriculture-discipline graduates in the relationships they build during their time studying. He says he often sees former classmates exchanging information about crop varieties, technology and management practices long after graduation.

“They’ve created these networks when they’re going to university.”

Overall, experts agree that preparing the next generation for the future of farming may be less about identifying one perfect degree or technical skill. Instead, success may depend more on having sound financial and strategic skills, knowing a little about a lot of different areas related to business and production, working in tandem with technology and using critical thinking skills.

Above all, Cawkwell says that as the agriculture sector continues to evolve at breakneck speed, future farmers will need to be able to continue to adapt and be willing to explpore opportunities as they arise.

“The people that win in this field are the ones that wake up in the morning and say, ‘How can my farm family benefit from what is today?”

Most of my efforts are directed towards helping reporters uncover the latest news, markets, management and production information that farmers in Western Canada need. But there’s another part of the farm family that isn’t ready to dig into stories like these.

This is why when the idea was raised of having a Young Producers page in the Farm & Family section, I was immediately interested.

I have two young readers at home, and it’s a chore to find stories and activities that are both worthwhile and interesting.

When I think about this ongoing task, of keeping engaging material in front of my children, I see an opportunity for The Western Producer to help parents in farm families across the Prairies provide future farmers age appropriate, agricultural related content they can rely on.

Another reason I’m excited about this feature in The Western Producer, is that when I was a kid growing up on a farm, I would have loved to have a special page in The Western Producer dedicated to kids like me.

As editor of the Farm & Family section, April Stewart, a sixth-generation Quebec dairy farmer, will play a big role in content coordination for the page. She told me the reason she’s so excited to have a Young Producers page in her section is two-fold.

“I knew I wanted to be a farmer since I was five years old. And while there were several magazines aimed at children when I was a kid, there was nothing farm related. I wanted to know and learn everything about running a farm; I wanted to have those ‘grown-up’ management and farm business decision conversations with my dad but had to parse information in difficult-to-understand farm newspapers geared toward adults.”

April also said that because modern farming has changed so much over the last decade, farmers of the future will need more and different skills and knowledge to succeed. (See ‘What future farms will need to succeed’ on page B3 for more about this.) “Farming is often about managing change, sometimes hourly. The farm landscape just 10 years from now will be vastly different than today — we’ve seen how quickly things have changed in the last 10 — and being proactive about understanding and building the skill sets and knowledge future farmers will need will be key to their success.

“You’re never too early to start learning and it’s never too soon to encourage a kid’s passion and build their sense of curiosity and determination,” April said. “If we want farms in the future, we need to make being a part of a farm, learning about it, relevant and fun — all of which we aim to do with the Young Producers page.”

Leanne Johner-Gooding, our on-staff educational resource consultant, will also help coordinate content for the Young Producers page. Leanne comes from two successful farm families in southern Saskatchewan and has worked in the agriculture industry since 2009.

She began her career in agriculture at a grain elevator as a customer service administrator and later transitioned back to human resources, where she specializes in recruitment and staffing. She also has a Bachelor of Education and recently worked as a substitute teacher in Regina where, she told me, teachers are provided agriculture-related resources to help them build lesson plans.

“But it’s not enough. Not for the young producers we’re hoping to reach. I believe that the Young Producers page creates a community for them, in the same way that The Western Producer has always helped to create a community for farmers,” Leanne said.

“The Young Producers page will be a place for young people to come together and compare their experiences, their knowledge and their understanding of the world. They can expand what they know by learning from and teaching one another.

“Call it a pedagogy of in-real-life learning. Through this page, The Western Producer will provide opportunities for young people to participate — to share, to learn, to engage and to feel seen. We want young people on the farm to know that they matter, and we value their perspective in the world.”

Leanne said she hopes having a dedicated page in their parents’ newspaper will promote young people to be invited to the table. “In order to have a full understanding of the farm operation, and to be well positioned to assume the responsibility of operating the business in the future, young people should be included in the conversation and seated at the table as early as possible.”

Starting with the current issue, you’ll find the Young Producers page in every edition of The Western Producer until April 2027.

“There was probably a little bit more consternation about the quality outcome than it’s going to end up being,” said Neil Townsend, senior market analyst with FarmLink Marketing Solutions.

“There’s a greater amount of resiliency in the crops now. That’s what they’ve been bred for, they’ve been bred to perform under non-optimal conditions.”

Exceed Grain Marketing made similar comments in the latest Wheat Market Outlook and Prices report it prepares for the Saskatchewan Wheat Development Commission.

“Anecdotally, wheat quality remains somewhat of a question mark, but results may not be as poor as many feared in mid-September following the prolonged rainfall,” the firm stated.

The Canadian Grain Commission said it is too early to comment on crop quality, but its wheat and durum quality reports do not indicate any big disaster.

The reports show that 77 per cent of the 526 CWRS samples and 68.2 per cent of the 255 CWAD samples made the top two grades as of Oct. 6.

Analysts speaking at the recent 2026 Pulse & Special Crops Convention said quality will be an issue for chickpeas this year, but they were not overly concerned about peas and lentils.

WHY IT MATTERS: Many in the grain trade were concerned that heavy harvest rains could have caused serious damage to the crop.

Townsend said while individual producers are not thrilled when there is quality damage in their crops, it is not necessarily a bad thing for the grain industry as a whole.

“Oddly enough, when there’s a little bit of quality variation, it actually makes the crop quite saleable offshore,” he said.

For instance, not every durum buyer wants to pay for No. 1 or No. 2 quality. There are markets for No. 3, No. 4 and No. 5 CWAD.

Obviously, nobody wants a major disaster where it is difficult to source the top grades, but some variety is welcome when it comes to marketing the crop, said Townsend.

“The one issue could be that if the quality is so mixed that it starts to clog up the logistics system because it gets harder to make representative cargoes, that would be one concern,” he said.

“This is the year we don’t want any slowdown to logistics because we should be at record levels of exports because the world is going to demand it.”

The mean protein content of the CWRS crop was 14 per cent as of October 6, while CWAD was 13.4 per cent, according to the CGC.

Townsend thinks protein content is overblown. He thinks anything above 12.5 per cent is a good crop.

“There’s fewer and fewer customers that buy in bulk that really pay for protein,” he said.

Townsend said Canada’s customers often receive higher protein wheat than what they paid for because Canada often has excess supplies.

Canada will likely be supplying some of the Black Sea region’s usual customer base this year due to war-related shipping problems in that region of the world. Those buyers are usually in the market for low protein wheat.

He said the world market is not very deep for protein levels of 14 per cent and higher.

“You can’t sell 24 million tonnes of that,” said Townsend.

Before looking at these numbers, here are a few interesting weather topics from around the world.

First is Arctic sea ice.

According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center, Arctic sea ice reached a minimum extent of 4.6 million sq. kilometres on Sept. 12, about average for the date. This tied for the 10th-lowest year in the 48 years of data. Interestingly, while sea ice has remained at historically low levels, there has been no significant decline in the September minimum over the past 20 years.

Next up are global summer temperatures.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NASA, the Copernicus Climate Service and Berkeley Earth, summer 2026 looks to be the warmest on record.

June and July were the second-warmest on record, with temperatures 1.49 C and 1.56 C above the 1850–1900 average.

August was the warmest on record at 1.71 C above average, only the second month with an anomaly greater than 1.7 C, behind September 2023.

Overall, summer 2026 had a temperature anomaly of 1.56 C, statistically tied with 2023 and 2024. Year to date, 2026 is the second-warmest year on record, and with a strong El Niño developing, there is a good chance it could finish as the warmest year on record.

Now on to something a little closer to home: the first fall frost and the frost-free season across the Prairies.

Looking at the values, there are a couple of things of interest.

First, while Peace River, Alta., saw an earlier-than-average first fall frost, it was also the location that saw the earliest last spring frost (May 5), resulting in a longer-than-average frost-free season.

Secondly, while areas around Winnipeg have seen frost, according to the data from the official Environment Canada station, it has not yet seen its first fall frost. This means that, at the time of writing, the region is currently at 139 frost-free days and counting.

One other thing to note is that both Saskatoon and Regina reported a very light frost on Sept. 13. If we ignore this event, then their first fall frost would be Oct. 1, pushing their frost-free seasons to around 135 days.

Looking at the length of the frost-free season, this year saw above-average values, with Manitoba seeing the longest frost-free seasons of about 135 days. This was about two weeks longer than average.

Across Saskatchewan, the length of the frost-free season was slightly longer than average, unless, as explained above, we discount the light frost that occurred in mid-September. If that is the case, then Saskatchewan also saw a frost-free season similar to that of Manitoba.

In Alberta, all three locations saw frost-free seasons that were between eight and 13 days longer than average.

That’s all the room I have. In the next issue, we will look back at September’s weather and then look ahead to see if there have been any changes to the long-range winter outlooks.

You can find a collection of Glacier FarmMedia mental health stories from the past year here.

Massie said the foundation’s biggest achievement is hard to measure: confidence. By talking about mental health as if “it’s a regular Tuesday,” she said, the organization is helping normalize the conversation. She measures success in more people reaching out, downloading resources and sending thank-you emails.

The foundation also trains counsellors across Canada to work with farmers and partners with groups like Ag Care Connect and the Stigma-Free Mental Health Society. Massie said counsellors tell her farm stress often brings people in, but once they start talking, other issues surface.

You can find a collection of Glacier FarmMedia mental health stories from the past year here.

Massie said the Do More Ag Foundation doesn’t see itself as a saviour.

“At best, I would call us the guide,” she said.

Because its team farms, too, the foundation road-tests mental health resources before adding them to its website, offering a range of options so people aren’t left with a take-it-or-leave-it choice. That can be as simple as a story from a farmer who took a week off the farm, or as urgent as links to crisis lines.

Massie said the people in agriculture who speak openly about losing someone or struggling themselves are doing an incredible thing for reducing stigma.

“They’re the heroes,” she said.

You can find a collection of Glacier FarmMedia mental health stories from the past year here.

Massie said the Do More Ag Foundation, founded by farmers in 2017 and granted national charitable status in 2019, starts from a simple idea: farmers are gritty people who like to tough things out.

“Tough it out is a great philosophy, and it works really well until it doesn’t,” she said.

Ask a farmer about stress and the first answers are usually the socially acceptable ones: weather, crops and prices. Massie said the second layer is often isolation and rumination, and farmers don’t always know where to turn when things flip. Building skills beforehand, or reaching out as soon as toughing it out stops working, can help. She also stressed that farming has real protective benefits, including time outdoors and working with the land and animals.

The government announced its intent to make targeted amendments to the CFR in September 2025.

Farm groups say prime minister Mark Carney committed to fixing a policy imbalance that leaves Canadian ethanol producers at a disadvantage in Canada’s own market.

“A year later, Canadian corn growers and ethanol producers are still waiting for that commitment to be delivered,” Grain Farmers of Ontario, Renewable Industries Canada and the Farms and Fuels Alliance said in a recent letter sent to Julia Dabrusin, minister of environment and climate change.

The groups say there is a “structural policy imbalance” that allows U.S. ethanol entering Canada to receive a substantial subsidy under the U.S. 45Z Clean Fuel Production credit and then compete with Canadian ethanol within the CFR.

Imports account for more than 60 per cent of Canada’s ethanol consumption. U.S. exports to Canada increased nearly 15 per cent in 2025 to a record 3.1 billion litres.

Andrea Kent, spokesperson for the Farms and Fuels Alliance, said that imbalance needs to be remedied.

“Canadian policy created the demand,” she said in an email.

“What we need now are the policy updates so we can produce more of the ethanol here in Canada.”

WHY IT MATTERS: Expanding demand for domestically produced ethanol would create more demand for Canadian corn and wheat.

Investments in Canadian ethanol expansions have stalled due to pressure from U.S. exports.

“The United States is now on track to become a one-billion-gallon (four-billion-litre) ethanol exporter to the Canadian market,” stated the letter.

“Without action, growing demand created by Canadian policy will increasingly support production, agricultural demand and investment outside Canada.”

The fix is to establish a credit multiplier in the CFR for Canadian-produced ethanol at a minimum of 1.4x.

That proposed multiplier would not fully match the value of the U.S. 45Z credit dollar for dollar, but it will make Canadian ethanol more cost competitive in the Canadian market.

“It gives Canadian producers a fair opportunity to compete for investment, production, and growth in our own market,” said Kent.

The farm groups and ethanol organizations would like to see the multiplier included in draft amendments published by Environment Canada by the end of 2026.

One in three bushels of corn grown in Ontario is used for ethanol production.

There are also consumer benefits. Ethanol blending reduced Canadian wholesale gasoline costs by an estimate 7.4 cents per litre in 2024.

“With more than $1 billion in potential investment on the table, it’s time to modernize the CFR so Canada captures the economic value of domestic ethanol production alongside the carbon reductions the CFR already delivers,” stated the letter.