(Alice McFarlane/farmnewsNOW Staff)

By Alice McFarlane

Agriculture Roundup

Agriculture Roundup for Friday, February 7

Feb 7, 2020 | 10:03 AM

Saskatoon’s Ag Exchange Group has acquired FarmLink Marketing Solutions’ brokerage department.

FarmLink, based in Winnipeg, will continue to provide grain market analysis and advisory service to farmers. It partnered with Ag Exchange Group on its CXN360 platform for price discovery, which allows the companies to collaborate with clients.

FarmLink CEO Mark Lepp said in a news release the new technology has changed the way farmers access price information on a live basis. He said using the platform and comprehensive market advice, farmers can have more clarity when making business decisions.

The full details surrounding the partnership are still under discussion.

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The Grain Farmers of Ontario (GFO) has withdrawn its membership from a national policy organization.

GFO had only recently joined Grain Growers of Canada (GGC). In 2018, GFO joined at the same time as SaskFlax and Producteurs du Grains du Quebec.

GFO Chair Markus Haerle said his organization left, in part, due to the lack of effectiveness of the GGC in securing support for soybean growers hurt by trade disruption during this U.S. and China trade war.

Haerle said the structure of the GGC is ill-equipped to deal with single commodity issues.

GFO had called for structural change of the organization, but only saw action on the file recently, with GGC sending out a membership survey.

The move leaves GFO on its own when it comes to lobbying at the national level, but Haerle said the group is confident in its abilities to push for the change it wants on Parliament Hill.

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Saputo Inc. said it will close its facilities in Trenton, Ontario, and Saint John, New Brunswick.

The closures are scheduled for September and January 2021, respectively.

The dairy and cheese company estimated roughy 280 employees will be impacted.

The production of both these sites will be integrated into other Saputo facilities across Canada and some affected employees will be offered the possibility of transferring to other Saputo locations within the dairy division.

The announcement came as Saputo reported a third-quarter profit of $197.8 million, which compared with a profit of $342 million a year ago.

There has been a significant decline in milk consumption.

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alice.mcfarlane@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @AliceMcF