Farmscape News

New Canadian Pork Research Hub Offers One-Stop Access to Information on Canadian Swine Sector Research

Jacques Faucher - Centre de développement du porc du Québec — Tue, 13 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Farmscape for October 13, 2026

The General Manager of CDPQ says a new Canadian pork research hub provides a single location to keep pork sector stakeholders up to date on the research happening across Canada in their industry.
Swine Innovation Porc, the Prairie Swine Centre, the Centre de Développement du Porc du Québec and the Canadian Centre for Swine Improvement have launched a new bilingual Pork Research Hub, located at porkresearchhub.ca, that offers pork producers, researchers, veterinarians and industry one-stop access to resources related to swine sector research in Canada.
CDPQ General Manager Jacques Faucher says the new site is designed to make all swine sector research being conducted in Canada accessible in both official languages in one location.

Quote-Jacques Faucher-Centre de Développement du Porc du Québec:
The first problem that we had initially, we had a lot of research in eastern Canada that are in French.
Therefore, for people in Western Canada, with the languages, it was a problem for them to be able to use this research for their production.
Therefore, initially, it was to be able to use all the research already done in the past in the same platform and to be able to have it in both languages.
Of course, we are checking all the information that we had in the past to be sure that it's the most recent research.
We have a lot of work to do initially to be sure that the publications that you will have in this new site, you will find the most recent information at the same place and in both languages.
Therefore, I think it could be interesting for the pork industry across Canada to use this one place to have access to all of the research across Canada through one website.

Faucher says the new bilingual pork research hub can be accessed at porkresearchhub.ca and he also encourages anyone interested in learning more about the work being conducted by the Centre de Développement du Porc du Québec to check out cdpq.ca.
For more visit Farmscape.Ca.
Bruce Cochrane.

*Farmscape is produced on behalf of North America’s pork producers

Swine Innovation Porc Issues Request for Letters of Intent for Research Projects Under the Advancing Swine Research Program

Alison Lee - Swine Innovation Porc — Fri, 09 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Farmscape for October 9, 2026

Swine Innovation Porc, in partnership with the Pork Promotion and Research Agency, is accepting Letters of Intent until November 13th for research projects under the Advancing Swine Research Program.
The Advancing Swine Research Program, developed by Swine Innovation Porc in consultation with the provincial pork organizations and industry stakeholders and in partnership with the Pork Promotion and Research Agency, was created to fund short term research that falls outside of the traditional five-year research cluster mandate.
Alison Lee, the Manager of Research Development with Swine Innovation Porc, says under this, the second request for proposals, 50 percent of project costs will be covered to a maximum of 50 thousand dollars per year for up to three years.

Quote- Alison Lee-Swine Innovation Porc:
We're looking to fund discovery or applied research projects, so looking at foundational projects or industry-driven research.
We're also looking to fund quick-win type projects, so shorter projects, such as proof of concepts or pilot studies, economic impacts, management practices, development, as well as knowledge translation and demonstration projects.
These quick-win projects would typically be under a year in length.
As far as research priorities, we have six that we are looking at under this call.
We're looking at animal diseases that are endemic to the Canadian herds, biosecurity tools and technologies, antimicrobial use and resistance, building technology and design to improve efficiency, improving energy use, emissions and water efficiency in swine production and improving pork safety and shelf life and enhancing pork quality.
We really want to focus on the Canadian pork sector, since we are a Canadian company and we're using funds from another Canadian organization.
So, any researchers from Canadian universities or colleges or other research organizations are welcome to apply.
We have gotten questions in the past about private companies or researchers from out of country about whether they're eligible.
And if you can demonstrate a benefit to the Canadian industry or can collaborate with a Canadian institution, then that would definitely strengthen the application and would definitely be for consideration.

Lee says information about this call for proposals is available in French and English under the section for researchers at swineinnovationporc.ca.
For more visit Farmscape.Ca.
Bruce Cochrane.

*Farmscape is produced on behalf of North America’s pork producers

Saskatchewan Agricultural Reports Generally Reduced Crop Quality but Average to Above Average Yields

Kim Stonehouse - Saskatchewan Agriculture — Fri, 09 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Farmscape for October 9, 2026

With the is year's harvest closing in on completion Saskatchewan Agriculture reports variable quality and yields.
Saskatchewan Agriculture released its crop report Thursday for the period from September 29th to October 5th.
Kim Stonehouse, a Crops Extension Specialist with Saskatchewan Agriculture, says with farmers starting to report completion of this year's harvest, we're seeing variability in both yield and quality of the grains.

Quote-Kim Stonehouse-Saskatchewan Agriculture:
The warm and dry weather that we've had now for the past couple of weeks has really allowed harvest to progress very well.
It wasn't without its challenges, of course.
There's humidity and dew in the mornings, making for very short combining days.
But still, it's progressed the harvest up to 82 percent, up from 63 percent from the previous week, with many producers indicating that they're either finished or going to finish fairly soon.
Harvest remains, of course, behind the five-year average of 97 percent, but it's only slightly behind the 10-year average of 88 percent.
This week, we asked about the quality of hard red spring wheats.
While it varies throughout the province due to the variable amounts of rainfall levels, wet conditions and pest activity during the growing season, the average quality this year appears to be lower than historical averages.
Right now, on average in the province, we're seeing about 31 percent that is grading number one, 44 percent that is grading number two, 19 percent grading number three and six percent grading as feed.
For yields, they're slightly better than the last report that we produced a month ago on yields.
The average provincial yields remain at or above historical averages for most crop types.
However, they vary throughout the province due to the different levels of rainfall and agronomic challenges throughout the year.

The warm and dry weather that we've had now for the past couple of weeks has really
Stonehouse acknowledges, it's hard to say what the weather will bring but a lot of producers will be hoping to wrap things up this week, but the weather doesn't look like it's going to be very accommodating after this weekend.
For more visit Farmscape.Ca.
Bruce Cochrane.

*Farmscape is produced on behalf of North America’s pork producers

Manitoba Farmers Make Substantial Harvest Progress

Sonia Wilson - Manitoba Agriculture — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Farmscape for September 8, 2026

Manitoba Agriculture reports farmers across the province made substantial progress this past week in terms of this year's harvest.
Manitoba Agriculture released its weekly crop report Tuesday.
Sonia Wilson, an Oilseed Specialist with Manitoba Agriculture, says improved weather conditions allowed the harvest to move forward.

Quote-Sonia Wilson-Manitoba Agriculture:
We were able to have quite a bit of harvest happen, which was a lot of relief for producers.
We had not necessarily warmer, but drier temperatures, with definitely some wind, but overall, we had a big push towards harvest, particularly in a lot of the finishing up the cereals, as well as the canola acres across the province here.
Overall, provincially, we're sitting at about 65 percent harvested, and of course that is as of October 6th.
What we're seeing for spring wheat is we still have some acres left, particularly in the southwest.
Overall, we're sitting at 86 percent harvested and similarly around that 90 percent mark for both barley and oats.
We know that there have been some concerns about lighter oats being harvested here, and also just the quality of the spring cereals in general, because we have had more moisture.
In terms of field peas, all done there and winter cereals as well were all done.
Then we have canola sitting at about 74 percent.
Then we've also seen it turn to soybeans, so about 30 percent across the province.
We've had pretty good central dry bean harvest as well and then silage corn has been coming off and just started a bit of grain corn and sunflowers, particularly in that central region.

Wilson says the wet conditions have caused downgrading of cereal crops due to sprouting and general weathering, lodging has caused challenges with the canola harvest and downgrading has been reported while soybeans have been looking good with average to slightly above average yields.
For more visit Farmscape.Ca.
Bruce Cochrane.

*Farmscape is produced on behalf of North America’s pork producers

U.S. Abandonment of Rules Based Trade Erodes Global Competitiveness

Dr. Al Mussell - Agri-Food Economic Systems — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Farmscape for October 7, 2026

The Research Lead with Agri-Food Economic Systems suggests, by shifting away from agricultural trade with its traditional allies including Canada, the U.S. is jeopardising global competitiveness.
An Independent Agri-Food Policy Note released by Agri-Food Economic Systems looks at the effect of a U.S. withdrawal from its traditional alignment with the west on agricultural trade.
Research Lead Dr. Al Mussell observes, over the last number of years, the U.S. has become much more protectionist, a departure from rule-based free trade.

Quote-Dr. Al Mussell-Agri-Food Economic Systems:
We've got a volatile situation in in global agriculture.
We've got a very serious drought in Western Europe which is going to impair their yields significantly, also impairing their logistics on rivers and stuff because of low river levels.
The Black Sea has become perilous to navigate from the standpoint of outward movement of wheat and feed grains, the barley and corn.
So, we've got this very volatile marketplace and that's before you even get into the energy complex.
But you need your international trade and pricing mechanism to work exceptionally well to try and even out and account for those disruptions.
At the same time, we've got the United States going in a different direction, not being a defender of the rules-based trade environment, to some degree prepared to throw their traditional trading partners and allies under the bus here a little bit.
And then, of course, we're learning every day more and more about the crisis that is probably going to hit Europe first having to do with diesel fuel where they could just run out of diesel fuel.
Then it's not just farm equipment.
It's anything that moves on a truck, train or boat, which, of course, is everything is affected by that.

Dr. Mussell suggests we need to communicate with our American colleagues and help them understand that throwing your traditional allies under the bus to achieve a quick gain strengthens the position of your competitors, notably China and Russia.
He says Canada and the United States can have their disagreements, and we most certainly do, but on this big stuff we need to get on the same page.
The Independent Agri-Food Policy note can be accessed at agrifoodecon.ca.
For more visit Farmscape.Ca.
Bruce Cochrane.

*Farmscape is produced on behalf of North America’s pork producers

World Trade Organization No Longer Viable for Setting Trade Disputes

Cam Dahl - Manitoba Pork — Tue, 06 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Farmscape for October 6, 2026

The General Manager of Manitoba Pork says the World Trade Organization process that ended U.S. Mandatory Country of Origin Labelling can no longer be counted on as a viable option for addressing trade disputes.
In December 2015, following a successful World Trade Organization challenge by Canada and Mexico, the United States repealed Mandatory Country of Origin Labelling.
An article posted to Manitoba Pork's website and circulated through community newspapers looks at U.S. actions to transition from voluntary back to Mandatory Country of Origin Labeling.
Manitoba Pork General Manager Cam Dahl says under Mandatory Country of Origin Labelling retail packages of meat sold in the U.S. needed to indicate on the label where the animal was born, raised, processed and packaged which required segregating pigs born outside the U.S. significantly increasing the cost of food and discriminating against Canadian and Mexican products.

Quote-Cam Dahl-Manitoba Pork:
Mandatory Country of Origin Labeling is something that we have seen from the U.S. in the past and something that Canada and Mexico took a complaint to the World Trade Organization and won.
Unfortunately, the World Trade Organization's dispute resolution process has become dysfunctional.
That stems from the U.S. blocking the appointment of the appellate committee judges at the WTO process.
So, at this point, the WTO dispute resolution process is likely not an option to protect us from the impact of something like Mandatory Country of Origin Labeling.
That is a significant loss for global trade and for global fair trade.

Dahl notes a bill passed by the Senate Agriculture Committee would reintroduce Mandatory Country of Origin Labeling for beef and suggests it would be naive to think that if Mandatory Country of Labeling is introduced for beef that pork isn't coming close behind.
For more visit Farmscape.Ca.
Bruce Cochrane.

*Farmscape is produced on behalf of North America’s pork producers

Saskatchewan Pork Producer Calls on Politicians to End the Rhetoric and Recognize the Value of Free Trade

Florian Possberg - Polar Pork Farms — Mon, 05 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Farmscape for October 5, 2026

A Partner with Polar Pork is calling for an end to the negative posturing and the realization that a free trade agreement will benefit everyone in North America.
Canada and the United States remain engaged in an active trade dispute with formal trade negotiations at a standstill.
Florian Possberg, a Partner with Polar Pork, says with the exception of the supply managed commodities most agricultural products have escaped the tariffs so for the pork sector it’s been business as usual so far but the situation is unsettling.

Quote-Florian Possberg-Polar Pork:
In real time, we're continuing to do business.
In the background, though, we really benefited by having the NAFTA, CUSMA, whatever you want to call our trade deal, in place for a long time, which gave us comfort and certainty that we could carry out business and make contracts and commitments to do business on both sides of the border.
If we go back to how we got NAFTA back in the days of Prime Minister Mulroney and President Reagan, there was a lot of goodwill and a lot of warm feelings.
They worked things out and came up with a deal that, quite frankly, over the years benefited both countries.
We've got a lot of things to offer the U.S.
The U.S. has a lot of things to offer Canada, including security of our borders.
So, it will benefit both Americans and Canadians, but I think mostly Canadians if we can have an agreement that works for Canadians and Americans settled in some kind of timeline that gives us some certainty into the future.

Possberg suggests the Americans could survive quite nicely if there was no more trade in meat and live animals, beef and pork, but Canadians would be hurt significantly if we couldn't freely access the American market.
He says it seems like the rhetoric on both sides of the border is intense but the negative rhetoric on the Canadian side of the border is at a much higher fever pitch.
For more visit Farmscape.Ca.
Bruce Cochrane.

*Farmscape is produced on behalf of North America’s pork producers

Saskatchewan Agriculture Reports Drier Weather Resulted in Substantial Harvest Progress Over the Past Week

Davidson Ugheoke - Saskatchewan Agriculture — Fri, 02 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Farmscape for October 2, 2026

Saskatchewan Agriculture reports warm, dry weather provided excellent combining conditions over the past week that allowed farmers across the province to make substantial harvest progress.
Saskatchewan Agriculture released its crop report Thursday for the period from September 22nd to 28th.
Davidson Ugheoke, a crops extension specialist with Saskatchewan Agriculture, says improved harvesting conditions over the past week allowed growers to make substantial progress.

Quote-Davidson Ugheoke-Saskatchewan Agriculture:
Over the past week we were favoured enough to have some warm and dry weather, which meant excellent combining conditions across the province and producers were able to make substantial progress in terms of harvest.
Right now, we are estimated to be at 63 percent harvested, which is a significant jump of 22 percent from the 41 percent we were last week although harvest remains behind the 5 and 10-year averages at 91 percent and 82 percent respectively.
Harvest levels continue to trail behind due to the delayed start to seeding in certain areas as a result of the wet and moist conditions we had earlier in the growing season.
From the comments of growers, the quality isn't as terrible as they felt it would be because of the moisture.
Most people are saying that the crops are not as bleached as they assumed they would, which is on account of delayed seeding.
The later seeded crops didn't get degraded as much as most individuals felt they would.

Ugheoke says it's still dry, so a significant jump is expected again in terms of harvest progress over the next week.
For more visit Farmscape.Ca.
Bruce Cochrane.

*Farmscape is produced on behalf of North America’s pork producers

Manitoba Agriculture Reports Further Downgrading of Crops Still in the Fields

Anne Kirk - Manitoba Agriculture — Fri, 02 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Farmscape for October 2, 2026

Manitoba Agriculture reports downgrading of cereals, canola and soybeans still in the fields due to prolonged rain.
Manitoba Agriculture released its provincial crop report Tuesday.
Anne Kirk, a Cereal Crop Specialist with Manitoba Agriculture, says we saw variable precipitation across the province this past week but most of the northwest received pretty low accumulations and was able to get a good amount of harvest done while rain throughout the central, eastern and Interlake did delay harvest a bit.

Quote-Anne Kirk-Manitoba Agriculture:
This week we're looking at about 51 percent of harvest completion as of Monday, September 28th and that compares with about 43 percent of harvest accumulation last week, so that was on September 21st.
So, we did see a good increase in harvest over the last week and a lot of that was some canola and then more soybeans gowing and certain parts of regions like the southwest and northwest did see some cereals being done as well.
Crop quality, it really depends on the crop that we're talking about.
For cereals and oil seeds like canola, we don't want to see the crop sitting in the field for as long as it's been sitting so, the later harvested spring cereals definitely see some quality downgrades due to weathering on the kernels, also sprouting.
So, we are seeing quality downgrades at the elevator and then downgrades to feed as well with sprouting.
And then also just extreme difficulty in actually harvesting that crop when there's a lot of lodging or stem breakage in the field.
Canola would be similar.
We have heard some reports of sprouting, regrowth and then some pod shatter and pod drop due to the length of time that the canola has been sitting out there.
Then some of those windy days are causing more pod shatter and pod drop.
Also, more lodging in canola is making harvest conditions difficult as well.
So tough harvest conditions for those cereal and oilseed crops that were ready to harvest a while ago that have been sitting out in the field.
Then, when it comes to soybeans, soybeans are in good shape and we haven't heard any issues so far.

Kirk says harvest has been at a standstill in some areas of the province but,, if we do get some drier conditions, we would hope to see a big increase in canola acres and then a big push on soybeans as well.
For more visit Farmscape.Ca.
Bruce Cochrane.

*Farmscape is produced on behalf of North America’s pork producers

Nominations Open for Saskatchewan Pork Industry Symposium 2026 Awards of Distinction

Steve Seto - Sask Pork — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Farmscape for October 1, 2026

Sask Pork is accepting nominations until October 15'th for its annual Awards of Distinction, to be presented next month during Saskatchewan Pork Industry Symposium 2026 in Saskatoon.
Among the highlights of Saskatchewan Pork Industry Symposium 2026, set for November 3rd and 4th in Saskatoon, will be the annual Awards of Distinction.
Sask Pork Communications and Marketing Coordinator Steve Seto says the annual awards of distinction provide an opportunity for those within the pork sector to recognise the hard work of those who have made significant contributions to their industry as well as the general public who benefit from the best quality pork in the world.

Quote-Steve Seto-Sask Pork:
Our Awards of Distinction are very important.
It gives us an opportunity to highlight the people who are doing brilliant work within our industry that covers a bunch of different aspects across the pork industry.
When we talk about production excellence, the environmental stewardship of making sure that we're not only taking care of our hogs on the farm, but as well the environment and everything that goes along with it, whether it be water quality, air quality, anything like that.
We've got community spirit, just making sure that people are uplifting our industry, whether it may be outside of the barn, doing something maybe indirect to help boost our industry and shine a light on the good work all of our producers are doing.
And then as well, people who have been in our industry for years and decades and continue to put their blood, sweat and tears into this industry to make it as strong as it is and as nationally and globally recognized as we are.
This is something that we don't want to shy away from and make sure that we are acknowledging these people and the work they've done in order to really highlight all of the work that we continue to do day in and day out.

Seto notes anyone interested in submitting a nomination for this year's awards of Distinction can access the nomination form at saskpork.com.
The deadline for submission is October 15th.
For more visit Farmscape.Ca.
Bruce Cochrane.

*Farmscape is produced on behalf of North America’s pork producers

Canada at Higher Risk than the U.S. in the Event of Loss of CUSMA

Florian Possberg - Polar Pork Farms — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Farmscape for September 29, 2026

A partner with Polar Pork suggests Canada has much more at stake than do the Americans in the event discussions aimed at extending the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement fail.
Following last month's collapse of Canada U.S. trade talks the U.S. imposed a 50 percent tariff on a range of Canadian imports, triggering the imposition of Canadian retaliatory tariffs earlier this month.
Florian Posseberg, a partner with Polar Pork, says despite the escalation of tensions, it's been business as usual so far for the pork sector but we seem to be getting further away from any kind of secure deal and that's unsettling.

Quote-Florian Posseberg-Polar Pork:
We've feared the worst, I guess, over the last two years when this thing really became an issue.
So far, in our particular industry, the hog industry, it hasn't been an issue on a day-to-day basis really, but we know that that could change in a heartbeat.
We really need to understand on both sides of the border that trade across the North and South is good for both of us.
And I think there needs to be an understanding in Canada that actually our dependency going South is far more greater than the Americans' dependency on going North.
So, I think we really need to quit posturing negative, adding more negative things into the discussions and start coming to the realization that in North America, we have a lot to gain by utilizing our assets on both sides of the border and get over some of this stuff that it almost seems like it's an ego thing.
Us common people just can't afford the leaders and shakers to have disputes that we just kind of get caught in the middle.

Possberg says the longer this thing drags out, the more irritants seem to develop.
For more visit Farmscape.Ca.
Bruce Cochrane.

*Farmscape is produced on behalf of North America’s pork producers