Insights and Stories of Allan Dawson

Mar. 27, 2015 at 11:43 am CDT

One of the world’s pre-eminent wheat breeders has retired, sort of. Ron DePauw, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s senior principal wheat breeder at the Semi Arid Prairie Agricultural Research Centre (SPARC) in Swift Current, retired from the department March 20. Last year DePauw was dubbed the “billion-dollar man” in recognition of […]

By Allan Dawson

Feb. 27, 2015 at 4:55 pm CST

Banff — There was applause here when plant breeders, seed companies and farmers at the Prairie Recommending Committee for Wheat, Rye and Triticale heard the Agricultural Growth Act, with its stronger intellectual property rights, was about to receive royal assent. Immediately after the bill received royal assent Wednesday, Agriculture Minister […]

By Allan Dawson

Dec. 10, 2014 at 9:50 am CST

The Canadian Grain Commission (CGC) is considering adding feed mills to its producer protection program, as part of an overhaul of the program proposed in the federal government’s Bill C-48. C-48, dubbed the Modernization of Canada’s Grain Industry Act, got its first reading Tuesday in the House of Commons. Adding […]

By Allan Dawson

Nov. 20, 2014 at 4:57 pm CST

The Canadian Forage and Grassland Association (CFGA) set up five years ago to help Canada’s struggling forage and grassland industry is struggling itself, but vows to carry on despite a shortage of funds and the resignation of its executive director, Ron Pidskalny. “Nobody is saying we’re going to have to […]

By Allan Dawson, Manitoba Co-operator staff

Nov. 3, 2014 at 3:55 pm CST

Manitoba Co-operator — CWB isn’t a grain company on the auction block, it’s a company looking for a new partner, who along with farmer-shareholders, will help it grow to serve western Canadian farmers better. “I think there is a misunderstanding about what CWB is trying to do,” Dayna Spiring, CWB’s […]

By Allan Dawson