(Photo courtesy Canada Beef Inc.)

Feed weekly outlook: Prices continue to soften as April approaches

Seeding start in Alberta remains a question mark

MarketsFarm — Corn is still moving into feedlots in southern Alberta as it approaches not only the end of its contracts, but also the end of winter. “We’ve been seeing here in Lethbridge prices at $395-$400 per tonne ($10.03-$10.16 per bushel),” said Erin Harakal, trade manager at Agfinity Inc. at Stony Plain, Alta. “It seems

File photo of black beans. (Nhattienphoto/iStock/Getty Images)

Pulse weekly outlook: For growers, spring still far away

Just 'minor changes' expected in Manitoba acres

MarketsFarm — Springtime still seems distant for southern Manitoba as snow remains and freezing temperatures persist. However, provincial pulse specialist Dennis Lange said current conditions are setting up well for seeding after temperatures rise and snow melts. “We’re still a little ways off. There are still snow drifts in the fields in most areas of


CBOT May 2023 soft red winter wheat with 20-day moving average, MGEX May 2023 hard red spring wheat (yellow line) and K.C. May 2023 hard red winter wheat (orange line). (Barchart)

U.S. grains: Chicago grains up on U.S. planting uncertainty

Hard wheats 'leading the way'

Mexico City | Reuters — Chicago corn futures reversed losses to close higher on Monday on concerns about U.S. planting delays, and wheat and soy also made gains. Corn made its comeback later in the session as traders speculated on weather conditions and planting schedules for springtime crops as cold temperatures linger in the northern

A sapper of the State Emergency Service inspects an area for mines and unexploded shells in Ukraine's Kharkiv region on March 21, 2023.

Editor’s Take: A season of uncertainty looms

The world is once again facing a growing season in the Northern Hemisphere that’s shrouded in uncertainty. A little uncertainty is nothing new, but over the past few years, things have reached a whole new level. As you’ll read on pages 6 and 7 of this issue, few unknowns are larger than what’s going to


Emerging corn plants in Canada. (Sophie-Caron/iStock/Getty Images)

CBOT weekly outlook: More acres expected for U.S. corn, soybeans, wheat

USDA acreage projections due out March 31

MarketsFarm — With expectations of far fewer prevent-planting acres for 2023-24, Terry Reilly of Futures International has called for increases in planted area for corn, soybeans and wheat in the U.S. this spring. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is scheduled to release its planting projections on March 31. Reilly pegged planted corn acres at

A farm worker unloads Ukrainian-made fertilizer from a truck on April 5, 2022 to use on a wheat field near the village of Yakovlivka, outside Kharkiv, after it was hit by an aerial bombardment. (Photo: Reuters/Thomas Peter)

Ukraine faces lack of herbicides, pesticides for spring seeding

About a third of needed chemicals reported to be at hand

Kyiv | Reuters — Ukrainian farmers, which have already started the 2023 spring sowing, have only around 35 per cent of the herbicides and pesticides they need, analyst APK-Inform quoted on Monday official data as showed. The Russian invasion has left Ukraine seriously short of finances, seeds and crop protection products, which could have a


A dried-out corn crop next to cotton planted into a dried-out cornfield at Tostado in Argentina’s northern Santa Fe province, on Feb. 8, 2023. (Photo: Reuters/Miguel Lo Bianco)

CBOT weekly outlook: Argentina estimates lowered, but attention soon shifting north

U.S. corn, soyoil export outlooks 'a little concerning'

MarketsFarm — Sizeable reductions to Argentina’s soybean and corn crops were confirmed in the latest supply/demand estimates (WASDE) from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, with more reductions likely in future reports. However, attention in the markets is starting to shift to North American weather, with spring seeding just around the corner. “The USDA was a

Yellow peas. (Victoria Popova/iStock/Getty Images)

Pulse weekly outlook: Manitoba growers not worried about Merit situation

Pea, canola protein processor in receivership

MarketsFarm — After Manitoba-based plant protein processor Merit Functional Foods went into receivership last Wednesday, Manitoba Pulse and Soybean Growers (MPSG) executive director Daryl Domitruk said it is not a microcosm of the province’s pulse industry. Domitruk said MPSG learned about Merit’s financial situation through the media. He also added that some Manitoba pea growers


CBOT March 2023 soybeans (candlesticks) with 20-day moving average and November 2023 soybeans (dark green o/h/l/c). (Barchart)

U.S. grains: Soybeans end higher in choppy trade

CBOT corn mixed, wheat down; MGEX, K.C. wheats up

Chicago | Reuters — U.S. soybean futures inched higher on Thursday while corn ended narrowly mixed after a choppy session as traders weighed poor crop prospects in Argentina against the expanding harvest of a massive Brazilian soybean crop and fears of rising interest rates, analysts said. Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) wheat futures fell on

The skeleton of a fish is seen in the Navarro lagoon, which dried up due to the climate phenomenon La Nina, in Navarro in Argentina's Buenos Aires province on Dec. 5, 2022.

Storms to bring rain to parched Argentine fields next week, grains exchange says

Drought has limited soy, corn planting

Reuters — A storm front should bring moderate to abundant rainfall across most of Argentina’s key agricultural area over the next week, the Buenos Aires grains exchange said on Thursday, which could help farmers plant their fields after a historic drought. Lack of rainfall in Argentina, the world’s largest exporter of soybean oil and meal