Provincial crops average for 2017

 

2017 started out with lots of moisture and early spring, which allowed some producers the opportunity to get out and wrap up the harvest from last year.

 

Shannon Friesen is the Acting Crop Management Specialist with Saskatchewan’s Ministry of Agriculture.

 

She says as we moved through the growing season the tap seemed to shut off but despite that most areas took off a pretty decent crop:

 

"Quality, for the most part, some of the best we have seen in a very long time," she said. "When we talk about yields for the most part provincially again on average."

 

She notes producers especially in the south were pleased with this year’s crop given the lack of rain through the growing season:

 

"Canola provincially we were only at about 34 bushels per acre," she said. "The ten-year average is 31, but when we keep in mind what we got in the south which was anywhere between 25 to 29 bushels per acre on average. That was well exceeded in the north, with close to 40 bushels. When we move to hard red spring wheat, the provincial average was about 43 bushels, in the southwest, we did see a low of about 33 bushels."

 

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Regulations help markets and industry exist on level playing fields, keeping consumers safe and innovation from going too far. However, incredibly strict regulations can stunt innovation and cause entire industries to wither away. Dr. Peter James Facchini brings his perspective on how existing regulations have slowed the advancement of medical developments within Canada. Given the international concern of opium poppy’s illicit potential, Health Canada must abide by this global policy. But with modern technology pushing the development of many pharmaceuticals to being grown via fermentation, is it time to reconsider the rules?

Dr. Peter James Facchini leads research into the metabolic biochemistry in opium poppy at the University of Calgary. For more than 30 years, his work has contributed to the increased availability of benzylisoquinoline alkaloid biosynthetic genes to assist in the creation of morphine for pharmaceutical use. Dr. Facchini completed his B.Sc. and Ph.D. in Biological Sciences at the University of Toronto before completing Postdoctoral Fellowships in Biochemistry at the University of Kentucky in 1992 & Université de Montréal in 1995.