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Agricorp
Agricorp is an agency of the government of Ontario delivering risk management programs to producers. They design programs for management in the areas of finance, food safety, environment and market security.
Agricorp prides itself on exceptional customer service, and collaborates with the agri-food industry to develop and deliver effective programs. WIN works with Agricorp on their Forage Rainfall Plan, a production insurance plan designed to protect producers from seasonal drought. You can read more about this project on the Current Projects page.
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Since 1892, Bayer has played a pioneering role in crop protection. Now, Bayer CropScience is a world leader in providing innovative products and integrated solutions for agriculture and environmental health, marketing one of the world's most comprehensive ranges of agricultural products: insecticides, herbicides, fungicides and seed treatments.
Bayer CropScience develops, manufactures and sells a broad range of innovative crop science products for crop protection, biotechnology and seed markets. Growers can also benefit from in-field grower expertise and personalized service. From pre-plant to post-harvest, growers can rely on support from the Bayer team to recommend the right product at the right time.
While the Canadian headquarters are in Calgary, Alberta, you can find Bayer CropScience in most major agricultural centres across Canada. A formulation plant in Regina and a seed-breeding centre in Saskatoon are home to product manufacturing and research facilities. Campbellville, Ontario, is the centre of operations for eastern Canada.
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Weather INnovations Incorporated services the Michigan Sugar Company, a producer owned co-operative formed in 2001, both in Ontario and in Michigan. WIN provides the model BeetCast to all of the sugar beet growers in Ontario and Michigan, and also provides a growing degree day base 34°F map for use by producers who wish to spray a MicroRate herbicide program. WIN has also been involved in the monitoring of harvest temperatures for the beet piling operation.
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Pride Seeds is owned by Groupe Limagrain and KWS Saat AG, which are independent, international seed companies. Groupe Limagrain is the largest independent seed company in the world and is owned by farmers. These farmer-owners think long term, and bring a farmer's independent perspective to genetic improvement.
The main activities of Pride are:
- sales of corn, soybeans and forage seeds under the Pride Brand in Eastern Canada.
- sales of HiStick+ Rhizobia Inoculant and AgMaster silage inoculants in Eastern Canada
- seed corn and seed soybean production
- export sales of corn and soybeans
Pride products are sold through a network of dealers, merchants and cooperative outlets throughout Ontario and Quebec.
New varieties of corn and soybeans from parent companies Groupe Limagrain and KWS Saat AG's worldwide research programs are tested at plot and small field scale in Eastern Canada. The main hybrid corn seed production is in the Chatham/Kent area of Southwestern Ontario with production facilities at Pain Court for conditioning of corn and soybeans for domestic use and export.
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S.C.I.C., a crown corporation under the Ministry of Agriculture and Food, delivers risk management tools to producers in Saskatchewan. The company prides itself on providing farmers with flexible plans that take into account their immediate and long term needs.
They offer a broad range of packages, and are continually innovating and expanding their catalog. WIN works with S.C.I.C. by managing and maintaining their 130 station weather network.
You can read more about this project on the Current Projects page.
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Syngenta, a world-leader in crop protection and agribusiness, ranks third in the high-value commercial seeds market and is committed to sustainable agriculture through innovative research and technology. As the world's leading supplier of conventional and biotechnology crop solutions, Syngenta has a broad product line designed to improve crop yields and food quality.
The crop protection and seed industries offer products that provide essential support to modern agriculture. Both industries have been fundamental to the agricultural productivity improvements that have enabled food production to increase alongside population and economic growth. These improvements have come almost entirely from increasing crop yields. The area of land under cultivation has expanded very little in recent years. The fact cannot be ignored that an increasing population will need to be fed from a relatively decreasing farmland.
For the last 50 years agricultural production has been criticized for exploiting natural resources faster than they can be renewed. At the same time world population is expected to see continued increases in the coming years, especially in developing countries, driving a dramatic rise in the demand for food.
During the next 50 years, the world's population will increase by 50%, to almost nine billion people (source: World Bank). During the same period, the availability of fertile soil and clean water is expected to decline substantially. There is an urgent need to ensure that there are adequate quantities of food of acceptable quality from local production.
The Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture (www.syngentafoundation.org) contributes to addressing this global challenge by devoting its resources to promote economically and ecologically sustainable agriculture throughout the world. The Foundation's work focuses on poverty-oriented agricultural research and development.
Sustainable food security is only possible if people in rural areas are able to identify their specific problems themselves and then develop and implement appropriate local solutions. The Foundation aims to help develop and support peoples' own existing efforts, enabling them to carry out such initiatives. Providing support for agriculture in developing countries means not only stabilizing locally sustainable production or increasing it whenever possible, but also investing in people's knowledge and their ability to help themselves.
Syngenta is one of the sponsors of Tomcast and we welcome their support.
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One of the few instances of a family achieving any measure of success during the Depression was the Thomas family who own and operate the Thomas Canning factory. This family-owned and operated tomato processing plant began operations just as the Canadian economy slid deeper into the Depression in 1932. The factory was the idea of William "Pap" and Grace Thomas.
Their sons Wilbur and Grant carry on production at the plant today. Originally Pap and Grace decided to set up a small factory which would produce canned tomatoes and tomato juice, because general farming was a poor financial risk at that time. The brand name used by the couple was 'Utopia', and today Thomas' products still bear the same name.
At first the factory was only a small addition on the side of the house with a large hot water bath system for skinning the tomatoes. This was attached to a huge wood-fed donkey boiler. After demand for their products increased, Thomas began to contract crops out to local farmers, always paying top dollar. As the years rolled on, the Thomas family business made regular expansions to the original open air operation. They built large storage rooms and moved all of the canning equipment under one roof.
They contracted even more tomatoes, bought more machinery and hired more staff. With each systematic addition, Thomas' Canning Factory became more and more automated. Today, Thomas is still producing high quality tomatoes and juice, not only under their own Utopia brand but for other major Canadian companies. The complex operation, now almost totally automated, little resembles that of fifty years ago. The skinning and spotting operations which used to require over one hundred workers are now controlled by forty employees. What is remarkable about the Thomas family business is that the plant began as Canada headed into the leanest years of the Depression.
It is a family controlled enterprise, not financed by some large conglomerate and Thomas' have never needed or applied for government assistance. The fact that they are the largest manufacturing plant in Maidstone Township and are still expanding and growing today, makes the business even more impressive.
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