With our minds occupied by the annoying situation with China over canola import bans in 70 percent of that country’s ports, it’s hard to take the long view on the golden opportunity China offers prairie farmers. After all, the present dispute is probably cutting Canadian canola seed exports to China by two-thirds, if the torrid […] Read more
Ed White
Stories by Ed White
Combination of factors lift canola
A falling Canadian dollar, stronger U.S. soyoil values and short covering because of canola’s recent strength helped ICE Canada canola futures rise Wednesday. However, falling crude oil prices undercut canola, holding the gains in the Winnipeg contract. Biodiesel demand for soybeans and small amounts of canola form a small part of canola’s demand structure. July […] Read more
Fear of GM contamination shelves Alta. GM flax field trials
Farmer and industry fear has prompted the developer of new genetically modified flax to voluntarily withdraw his varieties from open air testing this summer. “In order to alleviate some of the concerns, we have decided to cancel the field trial and we’ll stick with the production of seed in a confined greenhouse,” said University of […] Read more
Fallout from Greek economic crisis could make itself known in Canadian agriculture
Prairie farmers are feeling the tremors of Greece’s economic crisis, even though they do little direct agricultural trade with the country. “Who do they take down with them?” George Morris Centre economist Al Mussell said about the impact of a possible Greek debt default. “We might care a lot about that.” Greece has an enormous […] Read more
Producers want regulators to back off on tough standards
Rob Brunel thinks he has the answer to problems caused by fungal disease standards and GMO regulations: farmers should do more and regulators should do less. “As we test more and test better, maybe we’re finding things there that we would rather not find,” the Keystone Agricultural Producers vice-president said at the end of the […] Read more
Inability to tackle fusarium frustrates wheat farmer
Don Dewar harvested a beautiful crop of hard red spring wheat last fall. But when the farmer from Dauphin, Man., tested what was going into his bins, he discovered an ugly truth: it was tainted by fusarium and would bring a not-so-beautiful price. Instead of selling as No. 1, he might end up with a […] Read more
Disease delivers double whammy; prices slide, market moves west
Fusarium is a bad influence on feed grain markets for farmers in Manitoba and eastern Saskatchewan. Not only are prices jerked around by individual and regional fusarium levels, but buyers can shift from one end of the Prairies to the other. “When the Manitoba farmer has to move it to Lethbridge, he takes a huge […] Read more
Canola crushing becomes cleaner with new process
A chemist thinks he might have found a way to lift a hex from the oilseed crushing industry, potentially making it greener, safer, more efficient and less costly. “The industry would rather not use volatile solvents, but distillation works pretty well,” professor Philip Jessop of Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont., said about why crushers use […] Read more
Wild day on the markets sees canola finish down
Canola prices couldn’t climb faster than other markets plunged Thursday, ending up down despite hitting near-term highs early in the session. “It’s chaos. Some historic moves in the markets today,” said one Winnipeg trader. Canola prices reached a five-week peak of $393.50 per tonne in the July ICE Canada Futures contract before dropping to $389.10 […] Read more
Present markets the enemy of future markets?
I’ve recently been covering a couple of issues that show how today’s markets can be the enemies of tomorrow’s markets. We need tomorrow’s markets because that’s where the money and the margin are going to be. We need today’s markets so that we don’t go broke before we get to tomorrow’s markets. So when the […] Read more
