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Agriculture roundup

Agriculture Roundup for Thursday, October 3

Oct 3, 2019 | 11:59 AM

There was an improvement in feeder cattle markets in Saskatchewan this past week.

Provincial livestock specialist Leah Clark said prices were moving up because of lower feed costs and rising U.S. cattle futures.

“We saw increases throughout the week, day after day. The nearby October contract increased over $5 per hundred weight and the November contract increased over $5 as well,” Clark said.

Canfax reported 8,800 head of cattle were sold, up 1,000 head from the previous week.

Clark said this is the first time those numbers passed last year’s marketings which means the fall calf run is on.

Agriculture Minister David Marit has proclaimed October as Agriculture month in Saskatchewan.

Marit said the announcement is an opportunity to recognize the contributions of farmers and to increase consumer understanding and trust in modern food production.

We grow safe, reliable food for the world, we are an exporting province and we will continue to do that,” Marit said.

There will be an official kick off to Agriculture Month tomorrow at Saskatchewan Food Industry Development Centre in Saskatoon.

The Nutrien/Radicle Challenge concluded with the successful companies coming from Vancouver and Calgary.

Terramera won the Growth Stage category and the $1 million. It develops natural alternatives to synthetic chemical pesticides and fertilizers and has pioneered a method to target active ingredients to cellular delivery.

The winner of $250,000 early stage category was Livestock Water Recycling. The company has created a method to segregate and concentrate manure nutrients into two fertilizer products while recycling clean water for reuse.

The only Saskatchewan company in the competition, Precision.ai is a Saskatoon-based firm and is working on using drone technology to apply micro doses of spray to just the weeds.

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