Farmers face a three-pronged marketing problem for 2011. How do they: • hedge their expected production when they don’t know what production to expect; • hedge their expected production without locking themselves out of a much-predicted rally; • get full advantage of a future rally in the crop markets? Marketing advisers I called said these […] Read more
Ed White
Stories by Ed White
Analyst sees rosy future for livestock
Farmers have often justified paying high prices for land with the line: “They ain’t making any more of it.” A more complex form of that argument underlies George Morris Centre hog industry analyst Al Mussell’s optimistic view of the prairie hog and beef industries’ long-term future. “If you start looking at places that have a […] Read more
Commodities entering strong market cycle
Jim Rogers still says there is no end in sight for the long-term commodities boom that he famously began calling for in the late 1990s. That means he expects more surges in crop prices and general strength in commodity prices for almost a decade longer. “We have shortages already,” Rogers said in a recent interview […] Read more
Canola starts the year down
Winnipeg canola futures fell Tuesday, beginning a new year with weakness in sympathy with falling Chicago soybean prices. March canola futures settled at $585.80 per tonne – a drop of $3.50 – and November closed at $530.90 – a drop of $1.10. The above-parity level of the Canadian dollar helped depress canola prices, which are […] Read more
A potpourri of 2011 marketing advice
I’ve always despised potpourri. Can’t stand the smell of the stuff. It smells to me like junky gift shops, pastel floral patterns and fustiness. And it seems like a bunch of things that just don’t smell good together. Too many contrasting scents colliding. Perhaps that’s what this blog entry will be: a stenchiferous bouquet of […] Read more
Canola prices fall
Canola prices fell Wednesday, pulled into a short-term vortex created by falling palm, rapeseed and soy oil prices. March ICE Futures Canada canola futures fell $3.90 to $585.90 while November fell $2 to $527.40. Continuing strength of the Canadian dollar dragged on canola, as did little export seed business and little farm hedging. Trade was […] Read more
More predictions about 2011
Here are a few more scraps of analysis about 2011 crop and commodity prices: Barclays Capital: Corn in 2011 is the best bet among the big crops, backed by a “slew of fundamentals.” But crops in general look firm, the global bank said, and commodities in general have lots more room to rise, if the […] Read more
Last stand for native prairie?
The distant sound of cannon-fire from the battleground of the world’s agricultural markets determines who wins the war to save native prairie soils. In recent years the victories of grain prices over livestock profits have meant that Western Canada’s remnants of native prairie have been fighting a losing battle. But organizations like the Manitoba Habitat […] Read more
Potter mines minerals trapped below
If you see Dave Krindle sliding around on the banks of a local stream, or climbing around the edges of a mine’s tailings piles or mired deep in the mud on the edges of the Red River in Winnipeg, he isn’t up to anything nefarious. He’s looking for soil for that next great glaze. Life […] Read more
We just don’t register on the scale of importance
Well, I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and have had time to digest all that stupefying turkey and diabetes-inducing baking. I have gained in girth and decreased in Merriness. So, I’m ploughing through a pile of end-of-year outlook sessions I’ve collected and recorded since the middle of December, and thought I’d share simple […] Read more
