By Dori Modney (@Dori_Modney on Twitter) with files from The Canadian Press

Trade and marketing issues top weekly agriculture news

May 12, 2017 | 7:02 PM

LETHBRIDGE –  In the field is where you will find a lot of farmers these days, if not planting they are checking pivots. While they return to the career of ultimate optimism, agricultural news has had a strong focus on trade and has been the main topic on County 95-5’s “In the Field”.
 
Wheat-Trade:

The Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association wants to harmonize wheat trade regulations with the United States.
The group   is concerned about language in the Canada Grain Act that goes back decades.

Executive director Robin Speer says it calls for the automatic downgrading of American wheat imports to the lowest quality.

He is concerned it could potentially open the door to U.S. trade action as the Trump administration looks to renegotiate the North America Free Trade Agreement. 

A U.S. senator moved a resolution this week, ‘supporting fair and equitable grading treatment for exports of U-S Wheat products to Canada’.   This resolution comes during NAFTA-dominated headlines over the past few days.

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The Wheat Growers say, if not remedied, the action suggested in the resolution would be devastating to Canadian wheat farmers and the broader agriculture sector.

Market Access for Canadian products:

The Canadian Federation of Agriculture is welcoming a report released earlier this week by the Standing Senate Committee of Agriculture.

It is recommending a series of policy changes that would increase market access for Canadian agricultural products.

C-F-A president Ron Bonnett says he sees a clear acknowledgement that Canadian farmers are poised to seize on business opportunities presented by an expanding world population and heightened demand for quality products.

He says now there needs to be action on changing the grain transportation systems, regulatory harmonization, and agricultural research.

COOL-Labelling…for Pasta!

Canada could soon find itself engaged in another battle over Country of Origin Labelling.

The Italian government has submitted a proposal to the E-U Commission that would require labelling on all pasta that is sold in the country.

Cereals Canada president Cam Dahl says this would have a major impact on Canadian farmers that grow durum wheat.

He says it would significantly increase the cost of producing pasta from Canadian durum in Italy.

Drones and Ranching:
 
Farming and ranching continues to go hi-tech.
 
A Calgary start-up business is partnering with researchers at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology to develop technology that will help ranchers track livestock.

Ag-Con Aerial Corporation was created by a business partnership that included entrepreneur Rob Gunn, a drone enthusiast who wanted to turn his hobby of filming from above into a business.  The company began by offering aerial land surveying by drone.

The team then created electronic tags that would be fitted to cattle and detected from a distance of up to 12 metres, and the detector would be fastened to a drone.

It allows ranchers to identify potential health concerns in an animal and locate stray animals.