Spring has sprung in the cattle industry as ranchers focus on calving and feedyards spread manure. There are many moving parts right now for the beef industry including trade deals, consumer demand, and any ripple impacts on the protein complex due to African swine fever. On Thursday the USDA released its Cattle on Feed report... Read More
Category: Markets
Grain markets were served up another monthly instalment of the World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) this past week by the USDA, but if you didn’t know that, you might’ve missed it. The report came out as mostly expected, which was bearish, and since there weren’t too major surprises in this WASDE report, I’ve... Read More
To start the new month, grain markets are mostly able to retain their gains for the week, albeit Friday, April 5th was a mostly down day for the complex. For the week, Minneapolis hard red spring wheat was the biggest loser while oats led the complex in gains (what do oats know, though?) For HRS... Read More
Rumours of pretty strong Canadian beef exporter numbers for early 2019 weren't an exaggeration as Statistics Canada's official numbers puts January exports at a pedal to the metal pace. Confirming what the market heard anecdotally, StatsCan says beef exports to the Asia region in January were up 22 per cent year-over-year. Japan accounted for a... Read More
In presentations I frequently open up my talks discussing the agriculture challenges in Canada and the United States and then finish the opening by saying, "it could be worse, we could be in the UK." It always gets a laugh, but for farmers in the UK, a possible crash exit from the EU is no... Read More
In her first trip to Saskatchewan, Agriculture and Agri-Food Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau spent the day in Saskatoon discussing the issue of China blocking Canadian canola shipments with producers and industry stakeholders. Trade Diversification Minister, Jim Carr was also present during the two part meeting held late last week. Bibeau says they're "ready to go" when... Read More
This just in: there's lots of grain still out there. But you already knew this. With the last year of a trade war with China and another big harvest in 2018, the USDA reminded us on Friday, March 29th, that there’s still a lot of grain left out there. Corn was hit the hardest, as... Read More
There are oh-so-many factors at play in the oilseed complex, and the latest trade news (hi there, blocked canola shipments) does not bode well for the vegetable oil market. That said, soybean prices seemed to have encountered some price resistance at the mid-$9/bu price... could this be a bottom? Unfortunately, Chuck Penner, realist and founder... Read More
Grain markets worked through the third week of March with weather headlines drowning most of the Chinese trade issues in the U.S., but it was the opposite in Canada. In outside markets, global stocks and bond yields fell on Friday as fresh data points have amplified some thinking about a weakening world economy. On Thursday,... Read More
Over the weekend, Members of Parliament held an emergency meeting to discuss the restriction of canola shipments from Richardson International to China. The news of the blocked shipments broke about two weeks ago, and China import officials say the revoked cargo was due to 'hazardous pests'. Brandon-Souris MP, Larry Maguire says other MPs wanted this... Read More