Research Key To Choosing Right Futures Broker

In relation to time spent on production, farmers in Canada spend very little time actually marketing their crops and even less time seeking out brokerage firms that will guide them. But with the impending end of the Canadian Wheat Board monopoly on wheat and barley in 2012, more farmers may be looking for a broker

CWB Wind-Down Affects Delivery And Pricing Programs

Western Canadian farmers used to marketing some of their wheat and durum later in the crop year will have fewer options in 2011-12, as the uncertain future facing the Canadian Wheat Board has caused the marketing agency to refrain from offering some of its programs. “Given the uncertainty around the 2012- 13 crop year, and


CWB Sees More Wheat And Durum This Year

The Canadian Wheat Board raised its 2011-12 outlook for wheat and barley on Friday, as a warm, dry summer looks to produce bigger harvests than a year ago. Spring floods left an estimated six million acres unplanted across the Prairies, but a hot summer with timely rains has helped crops in Alberta and most of

Syngenta Sues Bunge Over Rejection Of GMO Corn Type

Syngenta Seeds, a unit of the world’s largest agrochemicals company Syngenta AG, has filed suit against major grain handler Bunge for refusing to accept a type of its biotech corn. Syngenta claims Bunge’s North America operations are illegally refusing to handle a type of genetically modified corn that is designed to protect the crop against


Late Blight Found In Tomatoes

The first case of late blight, the bane of Manitoba tomato growers last year, was confirmed last week on garden tomatoes in Ashern. Five cases of the fungal disease responsible for the Irish Potato Famine in the 1840s, have been detected in potatoes, including in a “sentinel” plot at the Canada-Manitoba Crop Diversification Centre near

In Brief… – for Sep. 1, 2011

More soybeans:Global soybean stocks will exceed estimates and keep soybean supplies in the upcoming 2011-12 season sufficient despite a lower-than-forecast crop, oilseeds analysts Oil Worldsaid Aug. 23. “World ending stocks of the 2010-11 season will be higher than expected at a record 75.8 million tonnes (on Aug. 31), approximately 10 million tonnes above a year


Wheat Growers Outlines Plan For A New CWB

The new CWB is to be reconstituted, without any monopoly or regulatory powers, effective Aug. 1, 2012 and assume all assets, liabilities and contractual commitments of the existing CWB. The new CWB Act is to provide for the issuance of share capital and for continuation of the CWB as a company under the Canada Business

Letters – for Sep. 1, 2011

As the District 2 CWB director, I attended the three so-called producer information meetings set up by the CWB in Medicine Hat, Camrose and Falher. Having read some of the media reports of the meetings in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, I knew that these meetings were all about politics, and an all-or-nothing message from the CWB


CWB Has Staff Retention Plan

The Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) has a staff retention plan, but the marketing agency’s president and CEO isn’t discussing the details. “These are confidential matters between the staff and the CWB,” Ian White said in an interview Aug. 26. “All we’re doing is trying to… is give staff and ourself the best chance of retaining

Big Canadian Crop Coming, Says StatsCan

While Canadian farmers will produce more wheat and a record-large canola crop in 2011, according to Statistic Canada, Manitoba’s crop production will be well below average. StatsCan estimated in its Aug. 24 report based on a July 11 survey all-wheat production of 24.076 million tonnes, up nearly four per cent from a year ago, and