Colleen Munro

SASKATOON – Pedigreed seed growers in Saskatchewan want greater access to new varieties that are better than, not just equal to, existing varieties. At its annual meeting during crop production week here last week, members of the Saskatchewan Seed Growers’ Association voted to lobby Agriculture Canada to put more money toward developing publicly funded varieties […] Read more

Budget cuts at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada have also affected The Western Producer. In the last six months, the department has cancelled two price-monitoring services. First to go was Agriculture Canada’s pulse crop report. Sharp-eyed readers will note that all but lentil prices have been unavailable since fall. That will be changing. We’ll be getting […] Read more

Selling a rye crop is not easy. Just ask veteran rye producer Wallace Winter. Winter has grown as much as 1,300 acres of rye on his farm at Burstall, Sask. This year, he planted 400 acres and put up some for feed. It took two days on the phone to brokers and buyers throughout the […] Read more

Sometimes, there is more detail in crop reports than we can deal with in one story or column. Statistics Canada’s December field crop report is one such example. It is the last official tally of the 1995-96 crop in Canada. We reported on the overall numbers when the report was released in early December. But […] Read more

Next to 1974, if there was year to discover nearly a million tonnes of wheat, 1995 would be a good choice. In its latest estimate of Canada’s 1995 crop, Statistics Canada has done exactly that. The November estimate of production of principal field crops put Canadian wheat output at 25.3 million tonnes, about one million […] Read more

REGINA – It’s no simple task to earn a 25 percent return on investment in one month. But that’s exactly what a newly acquired $20,000 purebred polled Hereford heifer did for its new owners Dave Bull and Daryl Kirton of Aldergrove, B.C. Haroldson’s Rose ET 74D, a 1994 embryo transfer calf out of Haroldson’s Raider […] Read more

SASKATOON – At the start of the recent commercial cattle show at Mexabition in Saskatoon, judge Peggy Checkel told the audience she was looking for uniform heifers with depth and quality. And then she said she wasn’t going to say anything else, until the championship classes. “My uncle Louis Latimer told me a long time […] Read more

What’s the best way to sell commodities into a rising market? Two words – incremental sales. What’s the best way to sell into a falling market? Incremental sales. Commodities analysts may have divergent opinions on the direction prices will take, but they are unusually unanimous about this strategy. “In my experience, it works on any […] Read more

REGINA – Farmers who are getting $6 (U.S.) a bushel for their durum wheat in the United States, are getting “ripped off,” said a Canadian Wheat Board commissioner. In an interview at the United Grain Growers’ annual meeting, Richard Klassen said the board had recently sold No. 2 Canada Western amber durum, with 13 percent […] Read more

REGINA – Delegates to the United Grain Growers’ annual meeting would prefer the Canadian Wheat Board to have a chief executive officer and an elected board of directors rather than appointed commissioners and an elected farmer advisory board. Eight of 19 resolutions considered at the public company’s annual meeting with farmer-shareholder-delegates dealt with the wheat […] Read more