Following a dry winter, most of the Canadian Prairies could do with a good rain but many American producers wish for drier weather. Long range forecasts show potential for rain on the Prairies at the end of this month or early May. Meanwhile, moisture south of the border has been of the frozen type. A […] Read more
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Prairie producers need wider range of profitable crops
Our trade troubles with China and India highlight the need not only to diversify markets but to also diversify the prairie portfolio of profitable crops. Canola is celebrated as the bill payer in Western Canada, the one major crop that usually generates a healthy profit while others are grown only as a necessary part of […] Read more
Economic slowdown puts interest rate hikes on hold
Was it only last fall when the central banks of the United States and Canada were talking about several interest rate hikes in 2019? With the economies apparently booming, it was time to tap the brakes to prevent the growth of inflation and to get interest rates up to a more normal level, after a […] Read more
U.S. flooding is the only bullish news in grain markets
“This is shaping up to be a potentially unprecedented flood season.” Those sobering words were how Ed Clark, director of the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Water Center in Alabama, described the situation in large parts of the Midwest this spring. The grain market, which has been mired in negative news about […] Read more
Feds must be guard dog protecting against hog disease
When we think of dogs in agriculture the first image might be a shepherd guarding a flock of sheep. But in Canada right now a more important canine is the stalwart sniffer dog at airports, protecting the nation’s multibillion-dollar pork industry. The federal government is engaging admirably to protect this country’s herd from the threat […] Read more
Over-dependence on one volatile market is a problem
Canola prices have fallen to around the same low level they hit the last time we were having trade issues with China back in the summer of 2016. Back then, China’s concern was the level of dockage and its potential to raise the introduction of blackleg disease. The Chinese are being less specific this time, […] Read more
Spring weather will soon become market consideration
Dry weather in North Africa and parts of Europe as well as worries about the potential for delayed spring seeding in the U.S. Midwest will likely start to be issues for market discussion in the coming weeks. So far in 2019 crop prices have been lackadaisical, weighed down by ample world stocks and the ongoing […] Read more
Speculation grows about future Chinese pork imports
Hog producers might have dodged a fourth-quarter price collapse, but futures since then have cratered as American pork production exceeded expectations. But hog futures prices could rally later this year depending on what happens in China as it battles African swine fever in its herd. One Canadian analyst, Jim Long, suggests that once the unprecedented […] Read more
U.S. ethanol future tied to bumper crop of D.C. politics
Ethanol producers in the United States achieved another record year in 2018, with production climbing 1.9 percent to 16.1 billion U.S. gallons processed from about 5.6 billion bushels of corn, or about 38 percent of the 2017-18 crop. But ethanol producers are not content. They are vexed by the actions of the U.S. Environmental Protection […] Read more
New trade deals offer hope for more diversified markets
Political relations with China are about as frosty as the Polar Vortex and worries are rampant that China is stalling canola imports so it is hard to believe that just a few months ago Canadian and Chinese officials were talking about doubling agricultural trade by 2025. In November Finance Minister Bill Morneau and Minister of […] Read more
