Years ago, when I started this job, farmers would often be outraged, contemptuous and dismissive of consumer concerns if those concerns seemed irrational, exaggerated or even just inconvenient. Back in the early 1990s, farmers at meetings I’d attend would often sneer at urban concerns about farming and self-righteously proclaim their own virtue, with a “Who […] Read more
Ed White
Stories by Ed White
Ten Thousand? Shmenthousand. On the other hand . . .
So, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is over 10,000. “So what,” I hear legions of rational, pedantic thinkers grumping in response to all the media chatter. After all, 10,000 on an arbitrary measure is really no different from 9,999 or 10,007. It has no concrete value as such, such types say. A bunch of guys […] Read more
Fewer bad surprises potential equals higher prices
Every time I take a few days off for holidays, or get sick, the market seems to rally. Is there a causal connection? Perhaps I should take a few days off every time the market drops or prices trend downwards for too long. I took last week off to return to Saskatchewan to celebrate my […] Read more
Giving your thinking a slap in the head
The other day I got a call from a woman I’ve spoken to a number of times over the years, one who always seems to be near the centre of whatever’s happening in farming and the grain business in Saskatchewan. She wanted to know whether or not it was worthwhile for her to subscribe to […] Read more
Research holds key to increased food production: expert
James Pettigrew remembers when farmers seemed to have reached a peak of productivity and efficiency. That was in 1965, after the first primitive corn hybrids came on the market, and per-acre production was only half of what it is today. This difference between what farmers could achieve then and what farmers can achieve now is […] Read more
Wheat forecast looks gloomy
Analysts find no reason why the wheat market might alter its downward course. “There’s just so much wheat and we’re trying to get this economy back on its feet,” said Joe Victor of Illinois-based Allendale Inc. “Two trains have come together,” he said. “We have two years of back-to-back big supplies that have run into […] Read more
Returning to source of resistance
Most North American oat varieties lost their natural resistance to rust during the transition from their origins in Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and Turkey. By returning to the varieties that lived in that primordial place, researchers at Winnipeg’s Cereal Research Centre hope to find ancient resistance. “They’ve grown up, evolved with the races of the pathogen, […] Read more
Oat genes gang up on rust
Agriculture Canada oat breeders are hoping to beat rust with a pyramid of resistance. They have discovered that former defences against a disease can be built into a new line of fortifications, even after they have been overwhelmed. “We’re hoping we can pyramid genes together,” Jennifer Mitchell Fetch said on a recent sunny afternoon as […] Read more
Technology can elude hog farmers
What sounds simple and efficient to a scientist can sound difficult and costly to a farmer. That’s why some of the cutting edge research discussed at the Western Nutrition Conference in Winnipeg isn’t likely to be quickly applied by producers. “This is all pretty futuristic for us right now,” Dan Klippenstein, a hog producer from […] Read more
Analyst predicts lower commodity prices
Prices of wheat, soybeans and corn are heading down, says an analyst who has been exceptionally accurate in the past year. But the winter should bring a recovery that will repair some of the damage to prices of these commodities in the American market, and a rising American dollar will mitigate the damage to Canadian […] Read more
