(Alice McFarlane/farmnewsNOW Staff)

By Alice McFarlane

Agriculture Roundup

Agriculture Roundup for Thursday February 27, 2020

Feb 27, 2020 | 10:27 AM

A pilot program has been launched to test how a new seed use agreement will work in the real world.

At the Prairie Grain Development Committee meetings in Winnipeg, the Canadian Plant Technology Agency announced it will launch the project.

It was also announced, in order to provide transparency, the Canadian Seed Trade Association (CSTA) formed a working group with producer and industry representation.

The pilot program will introduce a Seed Variety Use Agreement system for a limited number of seed varieties sold for planting beginning this spring.

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Beef cattle, hog and sheep inventories were all lower on Jan. 1, according to Statistics Canada.

For the cattle sector, it has been an ongoing process.

There have only been three small annual increases in 2012, 2013 and 2018 over the past 15 years.

Current cattle numbers are nearly 25 per cent lower than the peak in 2005.

Hog inventories were steadier than cattle, but still recorded a 0.6 per cent decline to 13.9 million.

The sheep and lamb population fell four per cent last year and are down 19 per cent from the peak in 2004.

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alice.mcfarlane@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @AliceMcF