Crop Week is a busy time for Saskatoon-based staff at The Western Producer. The producer meetings at Cropsphere, Crop Production Week, and Western Canadian Crop Production Show generate a lot of stories for us.
Also, with the inevitable government announcements and the new products and technologies showcased WCCPS, we are simply unable to cover everything. But we do give it a valiant effort.
Below is a video cast with some of the highlights of our video coverage, and below it are links and leads to some of the many stories we produced, stemming from Crop Week.
Video: Fusarium poised to make seed a challenge to find
Seed quality is of great concern heading into this year, says the owner of a seed lab.
“In 22 years, I haven’t seen a crop as badly diseased as what we have right now,” Discovery Seed Lab owner Bruce Carriere told seed growers during Crop Production Week.
Sask. government announces $7 million for crop research
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StatCan stands by its model-based crop forecast
Statistics Canada’s model-based production estimates are under scrutiny, but agency says it is confident in the results.
Research funding provided through Saskatchewan’s Agriculture Development Fund will continue to be about $7 million this year, despite troubling signals that the provincial economy is beginning to cool.
Federal bill would enable CGC to track grain containers
The Canadian Grain Commission is seeking the authority to start tracking containerized shipments of grains, oilseeds and pulses.
It is one of the changes outlined in Bill C-48, the Modernization of Canada’s Grain Industry Act.
Council explores risk reduction by seeking new canola buyers
The Canola Council of Canada wants to decrease its reliance on four key export customers.
Ninety percent of the country’s seed, oil and meal is exported, and 93 percent of that is shipped to the United States, China, Japan and Mexico.
“We’ve got a lot of eggs in one basket,” Bruce Jowett, the council’s vice-president of market development, told CropSphere 2015.
With a big farm show comes big responsibilities
As agricultural equipment continues to get bigger, so too does the need for a co-ordinated effort at the Western Canadian Crop Production Show in Saskatoon.
Organizing the set-up schedule starts a month before the four-day show, held this year Jan. 12-15. Larger pieces of equipment and some smaller exhibitors are given a specific move-in time.
“It’s definitely choreographed,” said Lori Cates, manager of the show.
Market stays bullish on pulse prices
Larry Weber was concerned that pea and lentil growers wouldn’t be able to fit their horns through the doorframe after hearing his market outlook.
“I’m bullish pea and lentils, but I don’t want everybody’s head to get too big,” he said.
His bullish sentiment stems from the record pace of Canadian exports and poor growing conditions in India, Turkey and Australia.
But the short term canola market is bearish
Brenda Tjaden Lepp doesn’t see much upside in oilseed prices, at least in the short-term.
Canola will be flat for the foreseeable future and flax prices are likely heading down.
She thinks growers should jump if the old crop canola bids that were available over the holiday season resurface.
“I would not turn my nose up at $10 if you’ve got more inventory than you’re comfortable with,” Tjaden Lepp, chief analyst of FarmLink Marketing Solutions, told growers attending CropSphere 2015.
Strong feed market is outlet for wheat
Wheat prices can’t fall much lower because of mounting demand from the feed sector, says a market analyst.
Feed mills in Manitoba were recently offering $6 per bushel for low-vomitoxin wheat.
That is above recent bids for Canada Prairie Spring wheat, winter wheat and No. 3 Canada Western Red Spring wheat.
“We’ve got this situation where you can sell milling wheat into feed markets for a premium,” Brenda Tjaden Lepp, chief analyst with FarmLink Marketing Solutions, told CropSphere 2015.
Canada well placed with weaker loonie and tighter stocks
The global price outlook for major crops looks bearish, but several factors unique to Canada present a more upbeat forecast for prairie farmers, according to a CWB analyst.
Those factors are a weak Canadian dollar and tightening stocks of Canadian crops, Bruce Burnett, CWB’s crop and weather specialist, said at a CWB session during Crop Production Week.
He thinks malting barley and pulse prices could rise in the new crop year.
Declining acres expected to boost yellow mustard market
Lower projected acreage and historically small stocks will make yellow mustard a reasonably profitable crop this year.
It was one of the key messages to emerge from the Saskatchewan Mustard Development Commission’s annual convention held Jan. 15 during Crop Production Week in Saskatoon.
Price projections offered during the meeting featured new crop yellow mustard contracts fetching 34 to 37 cents per pound in 2015, brown fetching 26 to 31 cents and Oriental getting 26 to 30 cents.
Markets expected to support greater malting barley production
Malting barley production in Western Canada is expected to rise in 2015, thanks to tight North American supplies and attractive contract prices.
However, it remains to be seen whether the increased area will be sustained over the longer term.
Canada’s barley production has fallen steadily in the past few years, in step with increased production of oilseeds and other feed crops.
No agreement on component pricing for canola
A Saskatoon farmer said he thinks the Saskatchewan Canola Development Commission is dragging its feet on its study of component pricing.
A resolution was tabled at last year’s annual general meeting asking the SaskCanola board to explore the pluses and minuses of moving to a system that would feature rewards and penalties based on oil content.
SaskCanola presented information to growers at this year’s meeting, but said the issue required more study.
Feed mills could gain access to security program
There is a good chance the Canadian Grain Commission will expand its producer payment security program to include feed mills.
“The (federal agriculture) minister has suggested he wants us to look at it and producer groups have suggested we should move in that direction, so we’re complying with what government wants and what stakeholders want,” said chief commissioner Elwin Hermanson.
Feds fund pulse, canola market development
Federal agriculture minister Gerry Ritz kept busy making Growing Forward 2 funding announcements at CropSphere 2015.
On Jan. 13, he doled out $3.3 million to Pulse Canada and other groups for market development initiatives. The announcement included $1.3 million to develop new tools for measuring the sustainability performance of Canadian grain, oilseed and pulse crops.
Watch costs, producers advised
Brenda Tjaden Lepp says some of the best marketing advice in this era of declining grain prices is on the cost side of the ledger.
“You better have a pretty good handle on your costs,” said the chief analyst of FarmLink Marketing Solutions.
Many growers rely on outdated numbers or only factor in variable costs.
“That is not our approach at FarmLink. We put every cost into (the calculation), even depreciation.”
Growers unlikely to push for canaryseed regulation
Canaryseed is likely to remain one of the few crops outside the jurisdiction of the Canadian Grain Commission.
There doesn’t appear to be much producer interest in becoming the 21st regulated crop, Kevin Hursh, executive director of the Canaryseed Development Commission of Sask-atchewan, said following a presentation by chief commissioner Elwin Hermanson at last week’s Crop Production Week in Saskatoon.
Pesticide tolerance levels worry grower groups
Canadian commodity groups would like future free trade agreements to include a clause saying the partners accept the results of global joint reviews on pesticides.
Poor countries used to rely on Codex, a United Nations body, to establish maximum residue limits (MRLs) for pesticides.
However, Codex is way behind schedule, leading to massive delays in reviews of chemistries.
Producers have few options for controlling new root rot
Farmers are urged to watch for a new root rot pathogen this year.
“It is of particular concern because it’s very difficult to manage,” plant pathologist Sabine Banniza of the University of Saskatchewan’s Crop Development Centre said about Aphanomyces euteiches.
