Mayo Schmidt spent his first years at Saskatchewan Wheat Pool cutting debt and chopping off parts of the company so it could stay alive. But now that he’s done that successfully, and more than doubled the size of the surviving company by taking over Agricore United, the Pool’s chief executive officer says it is time […] Read more
Ed White
Stories by Ed White
Feed grain beats wheat, canola
Prairie farmers are greeting soaring world wheat prices with the smallest wheat acreage since 1970. And, rather than increase canola acreage by 15 percent this year as many farmers and analysts estimated this winter, the oilseed’s area has increased only five percent. That doesn’t mean farmers don’t see profit in wheat and canola, said the […] Read more
Analysts calm barley nerves
Don’t worry, be happy with today’s high barley prices. That’s what some marketing advisers are telling producers in the wake of the legal tangle involving the fate of the Canadian Wheat Board’s barley monopoly. “Barley is still a good crop,” said Alberta Agriculture analyst Charlie Pearson. “There are details and court actions to work out, […] Read more
Barbecue drives pork expo
DES MOINES, Iowa – The smoke from the engine that drives the deals at the World Pork Expo pours out all day long and sometimes through the night, rich with the scents of midwestern and Texan trees. The deal-making fuel – barbecued pork – sits inside the smokers, often for hours, building flavour and hopefully […] Read more
Small U.S. hog farms may stage comeback
DES MOINES, Iowa – A few years ago the relatively small midwestern American farms that grew corn and soybeans and raised hogs seemed old-fashioned. Since the 1990s large companies built massive networks of large hog barns and took over much of the country’s swine production. Thousands of family operations left the business, often blaming the […] Read more
World meets at annual pork expo
DES MOINES, Iowa – Kenichi Masuda runs a 1,000 sow farrow-to-finish operation in central Japan. That makes his operation large by Japanese standards and makes it difficult for his company to see and test new products and practices. “That is why we come over,” said Hiroshi Takahashi, a Japanese hog company executive and translator for […] Read more
Bilateral trade deals favour U.S. pork producers
DES MOINES, Iowa – American hog industry leaders are heralding four new but not yet approved free trade deals that will give them an advantage over countries including Canada. “The Korea-U.S. FTA (free trade agreement) will give the U.S. pork preference in this lucrative market over other foreign countries,” said U.S. National Pork Producers Council […] Read more
Hog prices seen steady
DES MOINES, Iowa – U.S. hog prices in 2007 are expected to be steady or perhaps higher than last year. But American hog farmers might not be profitable, said University of Missouri hog market analyst Glenn Grimes. High corn prices have already reduced margins and producers will probably lose money in the always anxiety-producing fourth […] Read more
Corn prices eat into hog prices
The Western Producer’s Winnipeg-based reporter Ed White recently travelled to the World Pork Expo in Des Moines, Iowa to learn what’s on the minds of hog producers in the United States, Canada and around the world. See more stories from the expo in our Markets section. Perry Miller took three of his sons and his […] Read more
New U.S. facilities may draw prairie canola
The hands of the biodiesel industry are about to reach out and grab prairie canola. North Dakota farmers expect to see the biodiesel plant attached to the Archer Daniel Midland canola crushing plant at Velva go into production within the next few weeks. That should attract much of the remaining 2006 crop and firm up […] Read more
