Staff / The Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association has elected Levi Wood of Pense, Sask. as its new president.

Wood, who farms with his father on a fifth-generation farm, replaces Kevin Bender, who stepped down after four years at the association’s convention in January.

Wood graduated from the University of Saskatchewan with a degree in commerce. He obtained his MBA from the University of British Columbia. He returned to farming in 2007 after previous work as a foreign exchange trader.

The Wheat Growers will continue to work on policy issues to enhance the prosperity of Prairie grain farmers, including work to create a more attractive investment climate, further Canadian Grain Commission reforms, trade agreements and a science-based regulatory approval system for seed and other farm inputs.

IGC says wheat stocks will rise

london / reuters / The International Grains Council forecast March 21 that world wheat harvested area would climb to a four-year high for the 2013-14 season but global stocks would only rise modestly.

The IGC, in a monthly update, forecast a rise in global wheat stocks of three million tonnes by the end of the 2013-14 season, which would only partially offset a decline of 20 million tonnes in 2012-13.

A sharp rebound in U.S. maize production was anticipated in 2013-14 with the IGC forecasting the world’s top grower could boost production by as much as 30 per cent, year on year, from a drought-affected 2012-13 harvest.