DES MOINES, Iowa – Producers don’t expect to see newborn piglets with circovirus but that might be occurring, said a Kansas State University specialist. “Where is it coming from? Probably not from infection of the animal after it’s born. It’s probably in utero,” said Dick Hesse in an interview during the World Pork Expo in […] Read more
Ed White
Stories by Ed White
Delicious memories
AUSTIN, Minn. – Fate has brought an American food company and a canned meat product a level of fame shared by no other form of meat. The product’s name was adopted by an American army outpost in the Second World War, used 98 times in a Monty Python skit and is universally applied to junk […] Read more
Small crop predicted
This year’s late spring has the Canadian Wheat Board fearfully using the F-word. “We cannot afford to have an early frost at all this year,” CWB weather and markets expert Bruce Burnett said in the board’s annual crop conditions briefing June 11. “Even with normal temperatures from here on out, projected maturity dates for the […] Read more
Worldwide issues buoy prices
The problems plaguing prairie crops are part of a North America-wide collection of woes supporting prices. But other areas of the world are doing better, so prairie farmers’ woes might not lift prices as much as hoped. “It’s an unusual season,” said DTN weather analyst Mike Palmerino, in a weather and crop production outlook session […] Read more
Barley futures contract returns to southern Alta.
The Western barley futures contract’s run at being a world barley contract is over and it is returning to its Alberta feedlot alley roots. ICE Futures Canada Winnipeg exchange hopes the change can revive a struggling contract. “Everybody I’ve talked to, both leading up to the changes and after the changes, were expressing a very […] Read more
Silent trading floor masks market frenzy
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – The lights are off above the now-silent trading floors at the Minneapolis Grain Exchange, but it’s still possible to see where the futures traders went about their business. Large windows at either end bathe the long trading floor with a soft, refracted light, and the place seems like a seldom-visited museum for […] Read more
Researchers study dual virus infections
DES MOINES, Iowa – Veterinary researchers hope Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS) can be contorted into a friendlier version. “Wouldn’t it be cool if we could make a circovirus vaccine out of PRRS,” said swine veterinarian Dick Hesse of Kansas State University, recalling a beer hall conversation between vets that has seen some trying […] Read more
Not so worried
There’s lots of chatter about the danger of an early frost hurting prairie crops because they’re so far behind where they should be, but the markets don’t seem very scared. Everything’s been falling. Market commentators in the U.S. took note of the CWB’s assessment of the late prairie crops at its industry crop conditions and […] Read more
Back to old yields
Remember when 34 bushels per acre was average? Well, that’s what the CWB is estimating as the average for this year’s all-wheat prairie crop. That’d be a 20.8 million tonne crop. And it could get lower if the west doesn’t get rain soon. “This is the lowest all-wheat projection … Since 2002,” CWB weather boss […] Read more
15 minutes of fame
Problems on the Canadian prairies took up a good chunk of the DTN weather situation and outlook session I just listened to. We’re famous! But for all the wrong reasons. Too dry. Too wet. Too cold. That combined with U.S. problems with too much rain in the eastern corn belt, too much wet and cold […] Read more
