Roberta Rampton

The Canadian Wheat Board held on to its market share during the past crop year despite transportation woes and fewer sales to China. Chief commissioner Lorne Hehn told a news conference last week the board held steady at 19 percent of the world wheat market. For the first time, Iran became the board’s top export […] Read more

HIGH BLUFF, Man. – Steve Meister can give an hour-long pitch about what he sees as the benefits of hybrid canola. But the communications manager for AgrEvo Canada Inc. is the first to admit that farmers have to see the benefits for themselves before they’ll embrace new, expensive hybrid varieties. “No one’s going to go […] Read more

While sun and rain are making grain on the Canadian Prairies, they’re also shining or showering on prices. But frequently, it’s not the weather here that gets the grain trade sweating or shivering. It’s the weather around Illinois, home to the price-setting Chicago Board of Trade, that can be felt all the way up to […] Read more

With feed barley prices weighed down by tonnes in their bins and tonnes more in the field, some farmers are looking south to the corn belt for feed market action. They’re selling barley and buying corn call options on the Chicago Board of Trade, hoping to cash in on relatively tight U.S. supplies and some […] Read more

The big green R won’t be on his signs or pamphlets. But when Warren Goodwin explains what he’ll be doing in an upcoming provincial byelection in Portage la Prairie, Man., he says he is running for the Reform party. It’s a move other Reformers across the country are watching as they prepare to consider at […] Read more

Governments will spend $20 million to help lower the odds of another spring of devastation in the Red River Valley. The federal government has allocated $12 million and the provincial government $8 million to help people raise foundations or build dikes to two feet above the 1997 flood level, or move into ring-diked towns. Some […] Read more

The Manitoba government wants school divisions to amalgamate to save money, but it won’t force them. Instead, the education and training minister has promised a grant of up to $50 per student and a two-year phase-in period for mill rates to divisions that choose to amalgamate. “Our government supports the concept of fewer divisions, but […] Read more

Some new brightness for the long-beleaguered port of Churchill may melt some icebergs of doubt about its economic viability. When the port opens in mid-July, it will be run by new owners: OmniTrax, a U.S. company that manages 11 short lines south of the border. For the first time, the port will be able to […] Read more

Workers at the smallest of Manitoba’s four main hog processors remained out on strike early this week after walking off the job July 2. Jack Forgan Meats has been closed ever since and about 1,000 hogs a day have had to find a new home for slaughter. Manitoba Pork, the agency that handles about 80 […] Read more

The Winnipeg Commodity Exchange made small changes to its oat futures contract last week that may encourage more people to use it. Spokesperson Sandra Craven said the exchange decided to change the shipping logistics in the contract based on some comments from the American Oat Association. “We had the impression that some of the potential […] Read more