Pigs on the rampage Friday, April 3, 2009 What is hairy, tusked, weighs up to 300 pounds, and can wreck a pasture, a fence, a golf course or a car?A wild pig, and Texas claims to be home to two million of the critters.According to Associated Press reports, wild pigs caused $52 million in crop damage last year in Texas alone. Ranchers hired 1,100 licensed hunters shooting them from helicopters, but pig numbers keep growing so state representative Sid Miller proposed issuing licenses to weekend sportsmen to increase the kill. Other methods, such as traps, have failed and birth control is still being developed.Not everyone is a fan. Some fear a hunter may shoot a calf or a dog by mistake.Spanish explorers introduced the wild pigs' ancestors more than 300 years ago. Numbers have exploded since the 1980s. Texas is about four-fifths the size of the province of Ontario and vast rural areas area thinly populated at best. BF Technology that reduces crop insurance premiums Agricultural labour law challenge on hold
A new front in the repair access debate Friday, March 6, 2026 Iowa lawmakers have pushed the right‑to‑repair conversation into new territory with House File 2529, a bill that focuses specifically on diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) systems—the single most common cause of emissions-related downtime on modern farm machinery. The bill would require... Read this article online
March 8 is International Women’s Day Friday, March 6, 2026 Across the United States and Canada, women are taking on increasingly visible roles in agriculture—managing farms, leading ag-tech startups, advancing research, and strengthening the rural economies that feed both nations. Their work reflects a shift in an industry once defined... Read this article online
Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestry to Visit Toronto and Southwestern Ontario Tuesday, March 3, 2026 The Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestry will be in Toronto and Southwestern Ontario later this week as part of its ongoing study on the role of Canada’s agriculture and agri‑food sector in strengthening national food security. The fact‑finding mission is scheduled for... Read this article online
AgriStability Program Updated to Include Pasture-Related Feed Costs Beginning in 2026 Monday, March 2, 2026 In case you missed it last week, the Honourable Heath MacDonald, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, announced that pasture-related feed costs will be added as an allowable expense under AgriStability starting with the 2026 program year. The update addresses rising operational... Read this article online
Bringing more Food and Ingredient Processing Back to Canadian Soil Monday, March 2, 2026 Protein Industries Canada has announced the second cohort of nine companies participating in its Program, an initiative designed to bring more food and ingredient processing back to Canadian soil and expand the nation’s value‑added agriculture sector. The selected companies span the... Read this article online