D’Arce McMillan, The Western Producer markets editor, monitors trends in the North American and global agricultural markets. Each week he hosts a market video about crops. The video is designed to help viewers understand the forces responsible for changes in the trade. If agricultural markets are important to you, we have you covered.
Barley
China snapping up barley exports
Bulk barley exports are more than double last year’s pace de-spite a smaller overall crop. Canadian exporters shipped out 542,000 tonnes of the crop through Week 15 of the 2017-18 crop year, compared to 240,000 tonnes the same time last year. That is a 126 percent increase despite a drop in total supply of the […] Read more
Shipping efficiency key goal
Faster, taller, shorter, longer, fewer and bigger. Those are the attributes of the future western Canadian grain logistics system, transportation system players told the Grain World conference. “The role of our primary elevator system has completely changed and has to focus on shifting velocity,” said Karl Gerrand, the president of G3 Canada. A number of […] Read more
Canfax report
This cattle market information is selected from the weekly report from Canfax, a division of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association. More market information, analysis and statistics are available by becoming a Canfax subscriber by calling 403-275-5110 or at www.canfax.ca. FED CATTLE LOWER The Canfax weighted average fed steer price was $147.46 per hundredweight, down $1.78, and […] Read more
Crop profitability becomes more elusive
Pulse crop prices have gone to heck in a hand basket. Lentils have been under serious price pressure, and now India has announced its 50 percent tariff on peas, effectively barricading our number one market. At harvest time, the price for red lentils was soft at around 21 cents a pound. Now, the price has […] Read more
EU soft wheat area might fall, durum steady
PARIS, Nov. 16 (Reuters) – Difficult sowing conditions in northern Europe prompted consultancy Strategie Grains to cut its monthly estimate for the area sown with soft wheat for the 2018 crop, with farmers also put off by low prices. Strategie Grains on Thursday projected ongoing soft wheat sowings in the European Union would reach 23.5 […] Read more
Farmers renew call for national environmental farm plan program
OTTAWA — Farmers say a national environmental farm plan could be a good base line tool for them, given the demands from consumers and the proliferation of sustainability programs from other players in the food chain. Jason Lenz, chair of Alberta Barley from Bentley, Alta., said he still uses the EFP he completed in 2006 […] Read more
Hedging with U.S. futures and options tricky but possible
Finding perfection in futures markets is an impossible task. However, brokers and traders say North America’s main futures contracts can provide good risk management, even if they sometimes take a bit of engineering and TLC. “A lot of times it’s never going to be a perfect hedge, especially with wheat, but it’s giving you some […] Read more
Transportation bill heads to the Senate
A federal bill aimed at improving Canada’s transportation systems and ensuring better rail service for shippers passed third reading in the House of Commons Wednesday and is off to the Senate. If passed, the Transportation Modernization Act will provide greater certainty for western Canadian grain shippers that depend on Canadian railway companies to transport grain […] Read more
Special deal: three topics in one column
I’ll address several issues in this week’s column, from Saskatchewan crop yields to the value of the Canadian dollar to China’s changing support for domestic wheat producers. Currency dips The biggest market mover last week was the Canadian dollar’s decline to trade just below US78 cents. Only last month, most Canadian currency analysts predicted the […] Read more
