Conditions were variable across Manitoba throughout the 2018 growing season, according to the provincial crop report released Oct. 29. As of Oct. 29, provincially 97 percent of the total crop was harvested. Crops completely finished include winter wheat, fall rye, field pea and dry bean. The spring wheat, barley, oat and canola crops are 99 […] Read more
Barley
Weather weighed on 2018 Manitoba crop
Farmers back in the field
Farmers across the Prairies have begun harvesting again after many of them sat idle for more than a month. Slight progress has been made in Alberta and Saskatchewan, according to the latest crop reports. The reports capture only the week of Oct. 9-16, when much combining wasn’t done because of unfavourable conditions. Late last week […] Read more
New survey hopes to measure rural labour shortage
Agriculture has a people problem. There aren’t enough people in rural Canada to work as meat cutters at processing plants, or as labourers at cattle feedlots. At the same time, people living in cities aren’t willing to move to rural areas for seasonal work. That’s created a massive labour shortage in Canada’s ag industry and […] Read more
Farm-saved seed royalties are next battleground
Get ready for a heated debate over royalty payments on farm-saved seed. This contentious issue will be a centre of attention for the Canadian grain sector over the winter. All the players in the seed industry make a strong case for why more funding is needed for wheat and other cereals, and the same model […] Read more
Ag Canada ups canola carryout forecast sharply
Canadian canola carryout stocks at the end of the current marketing year (2018/19) will be considerably larger than an earlier estimate, according to updated supply/demand tables from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, released on Oct. 19. Agriculture Canada’s market analysis branch forecast canola ending stocks for 2018/19 at 2.500 million tonnes, which would be double the […] Read more
Drought takes toll on European cereal production
Soaring hot temperatures and extreme lack of rain this summer throughout Europe has caused an estimated eight percent drop in total European Union cereal production. In its latest short-term outlook report by the European Commission, the EU total cereal production for 2018 is expected to be 284.3 million tonnes, which is a five-percent decline compared […] Read more
Harvest delays prompts questions about malt barley supplies
The long, wet harvest of 2018 has probably spelled the end for most hopes that barley still in fields will meet malting specifications. “I really suspect that anything left in the field now, any barley now, will not be malting quality,” said Jeff Nielsen, a farmer near Olds, Alta., and a director of the Alberta […] Read more
Drought drives farmers to plant more wheat, less rapeseed
PARIS, France (Reuters) — Parched soils have hampered late-summer rapeseed seeding in Europe, raising the prospect that farmers will shift toward attractively priced wheat for next year’s harvest, analysts said. Barley, which like wheat has seen a price rally amid tightening global supplies, could also gain extra area as farmers turn to cereals and cut […] Read more
Drought drives EU farmers to sow more wheat, less rapeseed
PARIS (Reuters) — Parched soils have hampered late-summer rapeseed sowing in Europe, raising the prospect that farmers will shift towards attractively priced wheat for next year’s harvest, analysts said late last week. Barley, which like wheat has seen a price rally amid tightening global supplies, could gain extra area too as farmers turn to cereals […] Read more
Northern crop hopes sag under wet conditions
A combination of rain, snow and frost is causing downgrading of crops in northern Saskatchewan and Alberta. “We won’t see much No. 1 wheat anymore,” said Jason Skinner, chief executive officer of North West Terminal in Unity, Sask. “It will all be at least downgraded to a two if not a three or feed in […] Read more
