Mercosur Trade Deal To Cost EU Farmers

European farmers could lose more than three billion euros in annual revenue by 2020 under any free trade deal between the European Union and Latin America’s Mercosur region, a study for the EU’s executive showed. The deepest losses would be felt by beef producers in Ireland, Britain and France, hit by a predicted 200,000-tonne annual

Fertigation Gaining In Popularity

Manitoba potato producers are growing a high-value horticulture crop with a hefty appetite for nutrients, particularly nitrogen. But they must also consider infield conditions that can have a huge impact on what happens to that nitrogen. An untimely rain event could wash it through the root zone, making it unavailable. Soaked soils and warm temperatures


Canola Acres Could Decline In Manitoba

Oilseed acres may be nearing their maximum in Manitoba and could decline over the next six years, according to projections from the provincial Agriculture Department. Total canola, flaxseed, sunflower and soybean acres will peak at 4.6 million acres in 2011 and fall slightly to 4.5 million acres by 2017, predicts Anastasia Kubinec, a Manitoba Agr

Feed Wheat Helps To Fill Corn Void

Arecord five billion bushels of corn will be used to make fuel ethanol, a potential strain on the tightest U.S. corn supply in 15 years, but it will be offset by more use of wheat as a substitute for corn in hog and poultry rations, said the government on April 8. USDA pegged the carryover


U.S. Farmers Want Easier Access To Credit

The U.S. farm sector is booming with soaring land values, record-high crop prices and record farm income. For all that, farmers face stricter loan standards than a few years ago, small-farm activists say. They say lending practices, toughened nationwide after the 2008-09 recession, are now so strict they snare creditworthy growers. When they surveyed farm

U.S. Farmers Plant Huge Crops As Stocks Dwindle

U.S. farmers say they will plant some of the biggest corn and soybean crops ever this spring, racing to keep pace with unrelenting global demand that’s rapidly depleting stockpiles and driving up food costs. A government survey found corn plantings would be the second largest since the Second World War and soybeans the third highest


Putin Pledges Support For Farmers

Premier Vladimir Putin has pledged lavish new subsidies to Russian farmers as he seeks their support in an election year amid fears another poor harvest would trigger new food price shocks. Drought killed about a third of Russia’s grain crop last year, pushing up inflation and denting the popularity of Putin’s United Russia party, which

U.S. Bankers Keep Close Watch Over Land Boom

The steep rise in U.S. farmland prices creates the potential for agricultural credit problems if there is a sharp downturn in the sector, a leading U.S. financial regulator said March 10. Farmland prices doubled in the past decade, reaching an average value of $2,140 an acre in 2010. Record-high crop prices and low interest rates


Worries Aside, U.S. Has “Foot On The Gas” On Ethanol

The United States “can do it all” – turn more corn into ethanol without running short of food, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Feb. 24, as oil prices soared and the government raised its forecast of food price increases this year. “There is no reason for us to take the foot off the gas,” said

Anaplasmosis Reappears In Southeastern Manitoba

More cases of anap lasmosis have been detected in southeastern Manitoba cattle after an outbreak in the region appeared to have died down last summer. Five new herds in the Rural Municipality of Stuartburn have been identified with anaplasmosis-positive cattle since October 2010, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency confirmed. Eight positive animals in two of