Roberta Rampton

Malting barley markets may be slightly stronger next year. But in its first projections for 1999-2000, the Canadian Wheat Board forecast only marginally higher prices for the crop. Market analyst Peter Watts said the wheat board sees some recovery in the world malting barley trade, rising from the 3.4 million tonne-level to 3.7 million tonnes. […] Read more

Some farmers help pay for barley research. Some don’t. The Alberta Barley Commission and Western Grains Research Foundation want to find ways to make sure all barley produced on the Prairies comes under a research checkoff. Frustrations flared about the fairness of the current checkoffs at the Canadian Barley Symposium held in Winnipeg. “I can’t […] Read more

NIVERVILLE, Man. – It was the new Maple Leaf hog processing plant in Brandon that pressured urgent change within Manitoba’s egg industry this year. Provincial cabinet ministers saw the plant and its jobs established as a result of their decision to retract single-desk selling powers from Manitoba Pork, said the chair of Manitoba Egg Producers. […] Read more

NIVERVILLE, Man. – Egg producers from across Canada will meet March 24 for a “conflict resolution” session to try to bridge a widening chasm about how they share the market. The Quebec egg marketing board has pulled out of part of the supply management system for eggs. And the Ontario board has threatened to pull […] Read more

NIVERVILLE, Man. – After the formality of reports and financial statements at the Manitoba Egg Producers’ annual meeting last week, Jamie Logan stood up with a decidedly informal question. “I’ve worked pretty stinking hard the past year,” said Logan, a one-year member of the marketing agency’s board of directors. “I need to know whether people […] Read more

Hog producers in the United States will continue to lose money through 1999, says a prominent agricultural economist. But Ron Plain of the University of Missouri expects farmers will cut their breeding herd and packers will gradually get rid of pork stocks in cold storage, leading to a period of break-even prices in the summer. […] Read more

Corporations and big businesses are in the early stages of becoming the “new forms of political sovereignty,” according to an American author and journalist who addressed the recent GrainWorld conference in Winnipeg. Robert Kaplan sees similarities between corporations and the feudal farms that evolved into small nation-states in medieval times. He said it’s important to […] Read more

The free trade agreement between Canada and the United States has not cleared up irritants between the two countries. But at least the agreement yielded some rules to handle trade disputes, concluded three members of a panel examining the decade-old Canada-U.S. Trade Agreement. Not that the dispute settlement rules are perfect, noted William Merkin, who […] Read more

A Washington, D.C., international trade consultant says the word is that the United States has won its trade complaint about Canadian dairy pricing and market access. William Merkin, senior vice-president of Strategic Policy, Inc., said he hasn’t seen the interim decision of the World Trade Organization panel. But he has heard the U.S. has won […] Read more

The days when you could tell whether a kernel of barley was a malting or feed variety by its color or length of rachilla hair are over. As of this year, kernel visual distinguishability is no longer required to register new barley varieties. New high-tech tools show great promise for developing fast, accurate identification tests […] Read more