Statistics Canada published its annual pre-seeding acreage estimates on Thursday morning. As expected, the planting intentions survey showed Canadian farmers plan to seed more wheat, oats and barley and less canola and soybeans than in 2014 (see chart.) There were some surprises in the report, as the canola acreage projection of 19.4 million acres was... Read More
Category: Markets
Years of financial and regulatory challenges have taken a toll on pork production in Manitoba, to the point where the province’s largest hog processing facility now needs around 175 new barns built to operate at full capacity, according to the company’s president and CEO. Speaking at the Manitoba Pork Council annual meeting in Winnipeg on... Read More
Cattle markets typically have seasonal high and lows that you can track and capitalize on...except in the last while, when it seems the markets haven't stayed true to the more predictable pattern we've come to expect. With the first quarter of 2015 behind us, cattle markets are flirting with and surpassing record highs, but April... Read More
Just like NHL players have to step their game up for the playoffs, it’s a “pitter, patter, let’s get at ‘er” kind of feeling in the agricultural industry. We’ re hitting that time of the year where field activity is picking up steam. The most recent USDA crop progress report shows that seeding in the... Read More
Less than three years after the end of the Canadian Wheat Board’s single desk, the CWB is on the verge of becoming a private grain company controlled by a joint venture between global grain business Bunge and the Saudi Agricultural and Livestock Investment Company — the Saudi Arabian government’s primary agricultural investment arm. The new... Read More
A shortage of low-fusarium feed wheat and the decreased value of the Canadian dollar are supporting the cash price for corn on the eastern side of the prairies. Old crop Chicago futures have been trading in the US$3.65 to US$3.95 range since early January, while cash bids in southern Manitoba have risen to between C$4.50... Read More
Five, ten and fifteen day weather forecasts are all the rage these days as mathematical models built by market players (hedge funds and commercials) start to calculate the effects of rain, soil temperatures, and any other data point that you can think of. Some cooler, wetter weather is being forecasted for the American Midwest this... Read More
Soil moisture conditions across Western Canada are "in reasonably good shape" heading into the 2015 growing season, but there are areas where farmers who might not be accustomed to farming in dry conditions are preparing for a dry start to the year. As Bruce Burnett, weather and crops specialist with CWB, explains in the audio... Read More
If you saw the 2011 movie Contagion, you know how bird flu can be vilified. Movie goers left the theatre scared senseless that any traveller they encountered could be a ticking time bomb, as a result of a virus that appeared to spread from the close association between poultry and humans on some Asian farms.... Read More
North American hog prices have tumbled dramatically from the record highs seen last summer, pushed by a reduced impact from disease, a growing breeding herd and lagging U.S. pork exports. “It’s amazing how quickly things can change, but it does accent how high we were last year as well,” says Tyler Fulton, director of risk... Read More