Crop markets are waking up to weather problems that may hurt crops in Russia and China.But it will be mid-July before farmers know whether these La Nina provoked problems will become big enough to give a solid footing for higher prices.”Right now, I think it’s a speculative thing,” said Drew Lerner, president of World Weather […] Read more
Ed White
Stories by Ed White
Colombian deal worries U.S. farmers
If Canadian farmers are skeptical about the value of the Canada-Colombia free trade agreement, they can ask the American National Pork Producers Council about it.The NPPC is livid that Canada passed a free trade agreement while the U.S. Congress won’t pass the one American negotiators completed three years ago.“It is unfortunate that our producers have […] Read more
Fundamental change in USDA report
“Overall, this report is going to fundamentally change . . . how people at look at markets.” That’s what one Chicago grain market analyst described the USDA’s stocks and crop production reports this morning, which found that corn stocks are now lower than even the lowest trade guesses, and that acreage is also below estimates. […] Read more
Living in the shadow of that giant spike
All my blathering about the uncertainty of deflation versus inflation yesterday made me go back and look at some longer-term crop price charts to see if I could spot a trend or get a sense of whether we’re in a rising-price channel or a descending-price path. And as I suspected, this whole question is still […] Read more
Return of the deflationists
It seems fitting that the stock markets are tanking again and the Dow Jones Industrial Average can’t remain above 10,000 for long these days. England has been booted from the World Cup, this is sad, and I’m allowing myself to believe that a worldwide wave of mourning is suppressing investor exuberance. Perhaps the unending vomiting […] Read more
Former ag minister dies
“An honest individual and a very good friend.”Those were former Keystone Agricultural Producers president Les Jacobson’s words summing up Harry Enns, the former Progressive Conservative agriculture minister and member of the legislative assembly.Enns died June 24 at the age of 78.Jacobson’s views were common sentiments expressed by people who knew the gruff politician who long […] Read more
Making the yankee pig squeal
Most hog producers are probably sick of the sound of pigs squealing, but there’s one whose squeal should be sweet music in the ears of Canadian hog producers: the U.S. hog industry. (FYI: I like and admire pigs, so don’t think I’m insulting our American friends by slipping them into a hog metaphor.) We’re making […] Read more
Wild in the streets (Running, running)
Golly! So much for Canada being dull and boring. We’ve got ourselves real, live riots going on in Toronto. That should spruce up Toronto’s international image, which is presently that of excruciating niceness and mealy-mouthiness. From the footage I’ve seen, it seems the proletarian masses have finally risen against the brutal autocracy of the Tsar […] Read more
Something’s in the wind . . .
What kind of a crazy world is it where Italy can get knocked out of the World Cup by Slovakia and France gets booted by South Africa? Crazy, crazy, crazy. Those two met in the final of the last World Cup – with Italy becoming champions – and both have failed to make it out […] Read more
Unseeded acres leave many producers in marketing bind
Thousands of farmers are stuck in a marketing quagmire, trying to get out of old contracts and into new sales plans.But with many prairie farmers not knowing how much crop they are likely to have three months from now, replacing defunct marketing plans is vexing.“Every individual situation is different,” said Derek Squair, president of Agri-Trend […] Read more
