Today’s Canadian Wheat Board Pool Return Outlook for 2010-11 pushes many prices up sharply – surprising no one – but there are no happy surprises awaiting those in the malting barley pools, which hardly moved at all. Number One CWRS 13.5 pops up to $9.31 per bushel from $8.85 last month; Number Two CWRS 11.5 […] Read more
Ed White
Stories by Ed White
Low stockpiles; farmers’ benefit
BRANDON – Large world stockpiles of wheat and soybeans aren’t as big as some people think, according to a leading U.S. market analyst. In fact, the stocks are tight compared to use, and a big part of them are in the hands of countries that aren’t likely to let them go. That means the table […] Read more
Investment pools offer new land lease options
BRANDON – Farmers don’t need big acres to farm big, a Saskatchewan farmland investment fund operator told producers at Manitoba Ag Days. In fact, they don’t even need to own farmland. “I want you to separate the act of farming from the ownership of land in your mind,” said Brad Farquhar, who runs Assiniboia Capital […] Read more
Disease threat could cut sunflower acres despite prices
Buyers are trying to bribe farmers to grow sunflowers, but most aren’t interested because of disease problems. Farmers are walking away from sunflowers even with new crop confectionary sunflower prices at 35 to 36 cents per pound. “We expect a 25 percent drop (in sunflower acres in Manitoba),” said buyer Mike Marion of Roy Legumex. […] Read more
New opportunities for pork exports
Canadian pork exports have new opportunities to push further into some of the world’s most lucrative markets. Disease in South Korea has forced that country to slash its import tariffs on pork while dioxin contamination has crippled German pork exports. “The markets are in turmoil,” said Jacques Pomerleau of Canada Pork International. South Korea is […] Read more
Rising food prices stresss poorer nations
Escalating food prices are creating hardship in some of the world’s poorest nations, says a farm-based Canadian international aid agency. “We’re hearing from people on the ground that a fairly rapid increase in staple food prices is putting a lot of stress on households,” said Canadian Foodgrains Bank executive director Jim Cornelius. “This price increase […] Read more
Why people riot over rising food prices, and the impact on prices
Take a close look at the picture below, and see what you notice: The first thing you probably noticed was that it looks all fuzzy, and then you probably assumed you were overtired, lost your glasses, drunk, or all three. Don’t worry – you haven’t had a drink all day, you’re wearing your glasses right […] Read more
Apologies, and headaches
First off, apologies to all those likely offended last week by my references to an outrageous photograph of herself that Kim Kardashian sent out through Twitter. Possibly three groups of offended exist: 1) Those who have never heard of KK and feel uncool by this ignorance; 2) Those who feel KK is an egregious, materialistic, […] Read more
Happy weekend!
Here are some excerpts from a few newsletters I get. They’re all bullish, so I hope they give grain growers some cheery reading for the weekend and a warm, glowy feeling, especially if they have to go outdoors to move grain in these frigid conditions: BARCLAYS CAPITAL – COMMODITIES WEEKLY (This weekly report sums up […] Read more
Who’s hot and who’s not?
Recently Kim Kardashian outraged many with her “2sexy2tweet” photo that she tweeted out to the universe. OUTRAGEOUS! Well, there was nothing so outrageous at Manitoba Ag Days this year, from a price perspective anyway, as far as I could tell. But I got the distinct sense that farmers thought new crop canola bids seemed pretty […] Read more
