STARBUCK, Man. – Few people would try to solve a chronic gas problem with rubber pants but the Starlite Hutterite colony hopes that principle will solve odour problems emanating from its hog manure lagoon. The colony also hopes that wrapping and sealing its manure lagoon will enable it to trap the methane and use the […] Read more
Ed White
Stories by Ed White
Wheat prices, credit challenge buyers
Prairie farmers might be crying over the slump in wheat prices since last summer but some international customers at the Canadian International Grain Institute’s summer program say 2008’s high prices were pushing buyers away from Canadian wheat. “If those pricing levels had been sustained for some time, for sure we would have gone to start […] Read more
Signs point to commodity downturn
Commodity bears are growling again, seeing signs in shipping statistics that commodity prices are set to slump. While commodity bulls are buoyed by “green shoots” in the economy and the general return of optimism about the future, the bears think commodity prices are set to return to last autumn’s levels. “I remain extremely skeptical of […] Read more
Hog profit crisis shows need for hedging – Hedge Row
We’re familiar with hearing that the markets are ruled by fear and greed. A different feeling has been keeping a lot of producers from hedging their exposure to the sudden price drops produced by fear – discomfort with the agents and tools of price protection. “We have always focused on production, but now if we […] Read more
Showers of optimism
The main grain markets are down and dreary these days, and lots of ag industry conferences are having trouble finding people to attend. That’s definitely not the case here in Winnipeg this week, where the Canadian Special Crops Association has got a record attendance of more than 300 people from 24 countries. Yesterday I took […] Read more
Vote of Communist Confidence
Some of the strongest votes of confidence in the world’s free market economies often come from communist countries. Although their politicians and state media prattle the tired Marxist platitudes that sound good to frustrated masses and university undergraduates, their officials and government agencies are often some of the world’s better users of free market instruments. […] Read more
Ho hummish
Sometimes USDA reports send the markets flying or reeling, like the recent acreage report that killed corn by finding four million extra acres seeded this year in the U.S. Sometimes they inspire yawns. The latter phenomenon is likely to occur following today’s USDA reports on stocks, some analysts say. There are extra stocks of things […] Read more
Scared of the CIOPCI?
The markets are filled with acronyms that are often impossible to remember the underlying words for, but if you say them knowingly and confidently, with gravity, most folks will also pretend they know what the acronym stands for and you never really have to know what it means. It’s like the emperor’s new clothes: no […] Read more
Wheat, corn prices dip after U.S. acreage report
Better than expected growing conditions in the United States mean worse than expected prices for prairie farmers. And even if the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s June 30 acreage report turns out too rosy about millions of extra corn and wheat acres, it’s going to be the short-term gospel for the market, analysts say. “I think […] Read more
Agriculture holds its own
Last summer’s burst crop market bubble is still dripping off farmers’ memories, but many long time commodity bulls are still bullish. “The fundamentals are getting better for commodities. The fundamentals are not getting better for General Motors and Citibank,” said investor and commodity fund founder Jim Rogers in a recent television appearance, explaining why he’s […] Read more
