Stewart Wells Not Running For NFU President

“I think what a lot of people have come to understand is that they can count on the NFU to watch farmers’ bottom lines.” – STEWART WELLS The National Farmers Union (NFU) is like Cassandra of Greek mythology – it predicts the future, but nobody believes it, according to Stewart Wells, who after eight years



White Flag Or Prudent Planning?

A former chair of the Canadian Wheat Board says work should begin now on a compensation package for farmers if a World Trade Organization (WTO) agreement kills the board. Ken Ritter says he is convinced there will be a WTO agreement given most nations’ desire to stimulate the world economy. The current WTO proposal singles

Canola Rally Lagging, More Strength To Come?

For three-times-daily market reports from Don Bousquet and RNI, visit “ICE Futures Canada updates” at www.manitobacooperator.ca Grain and oi l s e e d prices at ICE Futures Canada in Winnipeg closed the week ended Oct. 16 higher, with canola lifted by the strength in the Chicago soybean market. Harvesting delays, due to weather, and


CFA Gets Silent Treatment On Internal Trade Deal

The Canadian Federation of Agriculture’s president wants some transparency from the federal and provincial ministers involved in implementing an internal Canadian trade agreement. First drafted in the mid-1990s as a way to break down protectionist and job mobility barriers among the provinces, the agreement is supposedly moving into the agriculture field during meetings in Yellowknife

Partly Barley, Partly Pulse

Can delicious and nutritious pasta get any better? Technical specialists at the Canadian International Grains Institute (CIGI) say “yes” and they’re working on the recipe to prove it. By substituting a portion of the traditional durum semolina with barley or pulse flour, they’ve come up with a version of spaghetti that’s higher in fibre without


In Brief… – for Oct. 8, 2009

Conditions worsen: Violence on Zimbabwe’s farms, once the country’s economic mainstay, is worsening, the country’s Commercial Farmers Union said on Sept. 30. Many white farmers have been evicted from land by President Robert Mugabe’s government since 2000, as part of a land reform program credited with causing a slump in agriculture. “The reality is that

The Wheat Board — Or Not

JOHN MORRISS EDITORIAL DIRECTOR The standard explanation in news reports is that AWB Ltd., formerly the Australian Wheat Board, last year lost its export monopoly due to fallout from AWB officials paying nearly $300 million in bribes to Saddam Hussein’s government as part of the “Oil-for-Food Scandal.” If so, it seems ironic that one of


Barley And Hornets – for Oct. 8, 2009

…to say that the ethanol industry has driven barley to unacceptable levels is hardly appropriate if the crop is barely meeting the cost of production. When you stir up a hornet’s nest, you get stung. It’s a simple lesson most rural youth learn at an early age, but one I was reminded of recently. A

Russia Needs More Grain Storage

Russia will raise its grain port export capacities to 30 million tonnes a year by July 2010 from 25 million now, but its storage, drying and cleaning capacities are lagging, Arkady Zlochevsky, president of the Russian Grain Union, told reporters Oct. 5. Russia, which exported around 23 million tonnes in the 2008-09 crop year between