Space is at premium at the Port of Vancouver and expensive.

Lack of meal capacity could be costing canola growers

One global analyst says meal sales are being lost, but the domestic industry 
says so far the system has kept up

Insufficient export capacity is costing western Canadian canola growers money in lost canola meal sales and farmers should be complaining loudly, says Thomas Mielke. Meilke is executive director of the widely read food oil publication Oil World, based in Hamburg, Germany. “You could do more, but the logistics are not in place,” Mielke said here

Get ready to sell new-crop canola soon, Thomas Mielke of Oil World, told farmers at Ag Days in Brandon Jan. 17.

Consider selling new-crop canola soon — more than usual

Thomas Mielke of Oil World warns a jump in palm oil production will push world canola prices down later 
and canola prices could decline by early this spring in anticipation

Canadian canola growers should consider selling new-crop canola soon and perhaps more than they would normally this early, says Thomas Mielke, executive director of Oil World, a German-based publication covering world vegetable oil and meal markets since 1958. “We all know these high prices (of around $500 a tonne on the Winnipeg futures market) cannot





As soybeans break out of the Red River Valley, Westman looks to become a logical choice for any future crushing plant.

Westman group exploring feasibility of soybean-crushing plant

Westman Opportunities Leadership Group chair Ray Redfern says with soybean production expanding and perhaps hog production too, a plant in western Manitoba could make sense

A group of community leaders is studying the feasibility of building a 5,000-tonne-per-day soybean-crushing plant in western Manitoba. The newly created Westman Opportunities Leadership Group (WOLG) is a volunteer group whose membership includes business, farm and civic leaders from the region. “Most of the (soybean) growth from here on in will certainly be in Westman,”

Soybean Field

U.S. soybeans may be headed for 90 million acres in 2017: Braun

The soybean-to-corn futures pricing ratio is far higher than it usually is at this time of year

It is almost certain that U.S. farmers will plant more soybeans in 2017 than ever before, but profitability indicators in the futures market give good reason to believe that this acreage could push much higher than what we have been prepared for. In its annual long-term projections published late last month, the U.S. Department of


This field of soybeans was still green on Sept. 23, 2013 and would’ve been damaged if there had been frost then, says Manitoba Agriculture pulse specialist Dennis Lange. While the farmers grew early-maturing varieties a cool summer and lots of rain delayed crop maturity. One of these years some of Manitoba’s soybeans will be damaged by a fall frost and likely slow the pace of soybean expansion, he said.

Three million acres of Manitoba soybeans by 2022?

Continued growth is possible, even probable, but there will be other factors 
weighing in against continued runaway growth

If the trendline continues soybean acres in Manitoba could easily top three million acres in just five more years — but don’t necessarily bet the farm on it. That’s the message Manitoba Agriculture pulse crops specialist Dennis Lange brought to the recent Manitoba Agronomists’ Conference on Dec. 14 at the University of Manitoba. He foresees

Agronomy will be key to growing soybean acreage

As the crop becomes a major feature of Manitoba fields, there will also be more challenges popping up for growers

If soybean acres continue to rise as expected, farmers are going to have to be vigilant, Dennis Lange said. “Rotation, rotation, rotation (is) very important,” he said. In the early years farmers didn’t see a yield reduction seeding soybeans on soybean stubble. But crop insurance data shows between 2008 and 2012 planting back-to-back soybeans resulted


Railway tracks

Proposed Vancouver grain terminal has great rail connections

The Fraser River Terminal will be served by four railways and there are no bottlenecks, a company official says

A spokesman for one of the companies behind the proposed Fraser Grain Terminal says the facility will be efficient and state of the art. Casey McCawley, Parrish & Heimbecker’s (P&H) director of West Coast operations and a director of the terminal to be co-owned by P&H and Paterson GlobalFoods (PGF), says that’s good news for

Soybean stems displaying the typical dark-brown lesions extending upwards from the soil.

Root rot races revealed

The knowledge will help farmers and researchers plan 
their response to the soybean disease

Agroundbreaking study has determined what are the most prevalent races of phytophthora root rot found in Manitoba soybean fields. The most prominent are Races 4, 25, 28 and 3. The most common is Race 4, according to the study, completed through the Pulse Science Cluster and funded by the Manitoba Pulse and Soybean Growers and