Last week there were reasons for confusion on what direction the American dollar might take based on White House policy. Most of the confusion last week was driven by comments made by different members of the White House team. "It's interesting, it's almost like currency wars at the moment," says Matthew Pot of Grain Perspectives... Read More
Category: Western Canada
Depending on where you live, fields have likely been frozen now for quite some time. Maybe they're even snow covered. Now is a great time to spread manure because that firm ground means you can travel and not create compaction, the storage is full, and, well, it'll work its way into the soil later...right? Well,... Read More
There's this thing about nature — it adapts. Many canola growers are getting a real taste of this in recent years by a slow but steady resurgence of blackleg showing up and stealing yield. For those who think, "hey, we have genetic resistance, didn't we deal with this already?" read and listen on. Record canola... Read More
Nutrien Ltd. (the newly created company made up of PotashCorp and Agrium) has entered into an agreement to acquire Agrichem, a specialty plant nutrition and plant health product company in Brazil. Agrichem is one of Brazil's largest liquid nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium fertilizer companies, as well as a producer and marketer of plant health products,... Read More
If you're five years away from stepping back from the day-to-day operation of your farm, you're likely to make different management decisions than say when you were five years in to your farming journey. But it's rare for a farm to have such a distinct start and end point — most farms are a blend... Read More
With the Canadian trade team agreeing to the Trans Pacific Partnership, there will be opportunities for the opposing parties to bring up issues with the deal. You can expect both the NDP and the Conservatives to use the TPP agreement as political leverage. The Conservatives, who were previously very critical of the Liberals for not... Read More
Scott Moe has replaced Brad Wall as the leader of the Saskatchewan Party, becoming the Premier-designate of Saskatchewan. Moe received 8,075 votes or 53.7 percent of the total votes cast, surpassing runner-up and former deputy ag minister Alanna Koch by 1,161 votes, in the fifth and final round of voting at the party's leadership convention... Read More
With adequate supplies of most crops, the grain and oilseed market is not giving Western Canadian farmers a strong signal to plant more of any major crop in 2018. At the same time, India's tariffs on pulse crops have producers looking for alternatives to peas and lentils for some acres. From a strictly marketing standpoint,... Read More
Oat futures have climbed more than 30 cents a bushel since the start of the new year, raising the question: will more acres switch from wheat to oats? As of Wednesday, nearby and new crop oat futures in Chicago were in the 42 to 45 percent range relative to Minneapolis wheat. The flatter, quieter spot... Read More
The Canadian organic production industry received confirmation today that the federal government will provide financial support for updating organic standards. Today in Guelph federal agriculture minister Lawrence MacAulay annouced the Government of Canada's commitment to provide the Canadian General Standards Board (CGSB) the "necessary funds to cover costs associated with the 2020 Canadian Organic Standards... Read More