In Brief… – for Jul. 7, 2011

EU drought eases:Rain in past weeks has saved European Union wheat from the worst impact of drought this spring but the 2011 crop will still fall on the year, analysts and traders said June 28. Much of west Europe has had regular rain in the past three weeks, relieving parched crops after the spring drought.

Simple Solutions To The Food Challenge

Last month a milestone was marked in the history of world agriculture when the bovine disease rinderpest was officially declared eradicated. Though unknown in North America, rinderpest or “cattle plague” has been a devastating killer of cattle and wildlife for millennia in Europe, Africa and Asia. After smallpox, it’s only the second disease in history


A Spring We Would Rather Forget

It must be summer. They show up like visiting relatives on the doorstep and they don’t know when to leave. Wood ticks, mosquitoes and black flies that think the Parklands have just moved down to the international border. Adding injury to the insult of the spring that never really happened, farmers across the province have

No Room For Expansion

There is little chance to expand U.S. crop plantings even if land reserves are freed in the face of tight grain supplies, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said May 26. During a Senate hearing, Vilsack warned against cuts in agricultural research programs despite U.S. budget pressures and encouraged worldwide adoption of technology such as genetically engineered


Farmers Face Water Shortage As Climate Changes

Farmers, governments and regulators should take preventive action to improve water management, because climate change will tighten water supplies for agriculture, the United Nations’ food agency said. Climate change will be bringing higher temperatures and more frequent droughts, reducing water availability especially in water-scarce regions, while melting glaciers will eventually cut water supplies in major



Soggy Soils, New Lessons At Crop School

The wet weather that has plagued Manitoba farmers also hit the Crop Diagnostic School. But organizer John Heard says that just makes the school more relevant. “We always say it’s better for us to make the mistakes than farmers,” said Heard, a soil fertility specialist with Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives (MAFRI). The 2011

Canola Drops On Fund Profit-Taking

ICE Futures Canada canola contracts dropped sharply during the week ended June 24, hitting their lowest levels in over a month as a broad-based fund sell-off weighed on prices. An unexpectedly bearish Statistics Canada acreage report also accounted for some of the selling, although most participants were downplaying the large StatsCan acreage number, given the



Beef Sales To South Korea Could Resume

Canada and South Korea moved closer to a deal that would partially restore Canadian beef access and end South Korea’s eight year-old ban, Canada’s agriculture and trade ministers said June 29. South Korea is the last major beef-importing country to agree to lower its restrictions on Canadian beef since a 2003 outbreak of mad-cow disease