‘New’ Cereals Canada selects Alberta farmer Todd Hames as chair

June 1 Cereals Canada and Cigi merged and held its first annual meeting June 22

Alberta farmer Todd Hames was elected the chair of the recently reconstituted Cereals Canada at its first annual meeting June 22. The ‘new’ Cereals Canada was created June 1 when it and the Canadian International Grains Institute (Cigi) amalgamated after two years of discussions and the approval of their respective boards April 13. Hames, who

MASC hail claims so far just slightly higher than 2019

MASC hail claims so far just slightly higher than 2019

Manitoba farmers have filed 150 hail claims so far this season with the Manitoba Agricultural Services Corporation (MASC). Just over 100 of those came from a June 20 storm that hit the Lowe Farm, Rosenort and Steinbach areas. That’s slightly more than the 127 hail claims MASC received as of June 28, 2019, but far


ICE November 2020 canola with 20-, 100- and 200-day moving averages. (Barchart)

Canola futures testing chart resistance

November canola briefly topped $480 Monday

MarketsFarm — Recent price activity in the ICE Futures canola market has been bullish from a technical standpoint, with the futures poised for a break higher if the rally can be sustained. After trading at a low of $468.10 per tonne in late June, the November canola contract rallied to briefly trade above the psychological

(Xinzheng/Getty Images)

China says could take more action against Canada

Ottawa and allies 'kicking against the pricks,' foreign ministry says

Beijing | Reuters — China said on Monday it reserved the right to take more action after Canada suspended its extradition treaty with Hong Kong and said efforts to pressure Beijing were “doomed to fail like kicking against the pricks.” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian made the remarks about the potential for more action


ICE November 2020 canola with 20-, 50- and 100-day moving averages. (Barchart)

ICE weekly outlook: Canola stronger after Canada Day

MarketsFarm — Canola contracts have made small gains this week after pausing on Wednesday for Canada Day. As the July canola contract has expired, attention turns to new-crop contracts. Areas of the Prairies have received significant rain lately, with flood warnings and high water advisories across southwestern and western Manitoba after several consecutive storms. It’s

Editor’s Take: The last mile

Editor’s Take: The last mile

Every year around the world, billions of dollars, euros, yen and yuan are spent on agriculture research. In Canada alone, public funding of “research in support of agriculture,” to quote the federal government, topped $557 million in the 2016-17 fiscal year. That figure may wax and wane with the budgetary vagaries of government, but it’s


Crops struggle to emerge through hardened soils in Manitoba’s clay-soil regions this spring.

Crops look to come from behind after dry start

Soil compaction and soil crusting led to emergence problems earlier this season, although more recent rains have loosened things up and crops are reportedly coming on

On camera, the soil chunk dug up in eastern Manitoba in mid-June might as well have been cement, for all the damage it showed after being hit with a screwdriver. The video, filmed by agronomy consulting service Antara Agronomy and later posted to Twitter, shows a local agronomist attempting to smash and chip a block of compacted seedbed,

(Dave Bedard photo)

Attention turns to yield potential after StatsCan report

Future tweaks to acreage numbers seen as unlikely to sway markets

MarketsFarm — Updated acreage estimates from Statistics Canada came largely within market expectations, with the focus now shifting to growing conditions and yield potential. The survey was completed in early June “and may not have captured all of the seeding delays and potential shifts that may have happened in central/northern Alberta and northwestern Saskatchewan because


File photo of an Alberta wheat field. (ImagineGolf/E+/Getty Images)

StatsCan survey shows bump up in wheat acres, particularly durum

Farmers back off canola, soybeans; pandemic expected to cause other problems for ag

Ottawa | Reuters — Canadian farmers planted slightly more wheat overall in 2020 than in 2019, but the coronavirus outbreak will pose “unique challenges” in the production and distribution of crops, Statistics Canada said on Monday. Farmers planted 25 million acres of wheat, up 1.5 per cent from 2019, thanks in part to a 16.2

(Photo courtesy Canola Council of Canada)

Canola area expected to be lower in Monday’s StatsCan report

Later-seeded areas expected to add pulse, barley, durum acres

MarketsFarm — Market participants generally expect canola acreage will be revised downward in a second acreage estimate due out Monday from Statistics Canada. “There’s a lot of uncertainty about canola acres,” Ken Ball of P.I. International in Winnipeg said, noting acreage was “definitely lost” in central and northern Alberta due to wet spring conditions. In