Yesterday CN Rail president and CEO Claude Mongeau made the railroading and grain transportation business sound quite exciting. Here are some phrases he used: “This is a transformational innovation;” “I believe that the supply chain, the grain handling system, is at a crossroads that will take us to a new level in terms of creating […] Read more
Ed White
Stories by Ed White
No CWB vs CNR strum und drang. DRAT!!!
As a shallow and yellow journalist, here’s what I hoped to see when I went to a luncheon just now at which the Canadian Wheat Board was introducing the president and CEO of CN Rail: Ahhhhhh, such drama!!!!! Such sturm und drang!!!!! Such fun to report!!!! Alas, it was not to be. Instead, I found […] Read more
Western bean cutworm may pose threat to field peas, warn researchers
Peas could be in danger if the western bean cutworm makes the trip to Western Canada. A University of Guelph researcher who has fought the bug since it invaded Ontario in 2008 issued the warning during the recent Manitoba Special Crops Symposium. “This thing scares me more than anything else I’ve worked with,” Chris Gillard […] Read more
Dwindling corn stocks put market on edge
Analysts are finding it hard to be bearish about crop markets, even if today’s bullishness is ringing alarms. “It’s easy to get caught up (by headlines),” noted Chuck Penner, market analyst with LeftField Commodity Research, at the Manitoba Special Crops Symposium. Penner noted that the price optimism worries him, because that often precedes a market […] Read more
Tests show biodiesel byproduct benefits pigs
Glycerin might not sound yummy, but both young and adult pigs appear to like the stuff. That means hog producers might be able to use a growing resource on the Prairies, because more biodiesel production means more glycerin production. “The research on (glycerin) has shown that pigs can perform equal to or better than pigs […] Read more
Seek lenders who know hog sector
Many hog farmers are no longer scared of their bankers, now that agricultural commodity prices have recovered and profits are flowing. But this is the time to prepare for the next downturn, says a farm finance expert, because if farmers had a crappy lender in the last downturn, they will probably be a crappy lender […] Read more
Spikes, bubbles, and life in highly non-linear times
Lots of economists don’t think history has much to teach us about contemporary markets – ever. They believe in rational markets that have every bit of knowable information already factored into them, so they think there’s little to be gained from studying market history. So I don’t call those economists when I’m writing stories about […] Read more
Wheat Fleet follies: It all depends on your weltanschauung
First, a gripping set of images from an imagined history of the Royal Canadian Wheat Fleet: Ahhh, yes, there has been much reaction to the Canadian Wheat Board’s decision to buy part of a new fleet of ships for use in the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway. There has been outrage, praise, surprise, shock, […] Read more
Hosni, we’ll (not) miss you
Hosni Mubarak finally agreed to haul his old butt off the pharoah’s chair in Egypt, and the wheat market slightly rallied in response. At least that’s what Agricharts told me, and I don’t know any different, so that’s the truth for now. About the wheat markets, I mean. I didn’t find out about Hosni’s decision […] Read more
Some wicked bug this way comes?
Chris Gillard of the University of Guelph summed up his view of the Western Bean Cutworm this way: “This thing scares me more than anything else I’ve worked with,” said the pulse crop specialist at the Manitoba Special Crops Symposium. It’s a pest in edible beans and corn – big Ontario crops – and also […] Read more
