Poor growing conditions abroad, coupled with short supplies of peas and lentils means prices will be up this year
Larry Weber was concerned that pea and lentil growers wouldn’t be able to fit their horns through the doorframe after hearing his market outlook. “I’m bullish pea and lentils, but I don’t want everybody’s head to get too big,” he said. His bullish sentiment stems from the record pace of Canadian exports and poor growing […] Read more
Sean Pratt
Stories by Sean Pratt
Growers unlikely to push for canaryseed regulation
Grain commission won’t be handling crop any time soon, say officials
Canaryseed is likely to remain one of the few crops outside the jurisdiction of the Canadian Grain Commission. There doesn’t appear to be much producer interest in becoming the 21st regulated crop, Kevin Hursh, executive director of the Canaryseed Development Commission of Sask-atchewan, said following a presentation by chief commissioner Elwin Hermanson at last week’s […] Read more
Strong feed market is outlet for wheat
Wheat prices can’t fall much lower because of mounting demand from the feed sector, says a market analyst. Feed mills in Manitoba were recently offering $6 per bushel for low-vomitoxin wheat. That is above recent bids for Canada Prairie Spring wheat, winter wheat and No. 3 Canada Western Red Spring wheat. “We’ve got this situation […] Read more
Council explores risk reduction by seeking new canola buyers
The Canola Council of Canada wants to decrease its reliance on four key export customers. Ninety percent of the country’s seed, oil and meal is exported, and 93 percent of that is shipped to the United States, China, Japan and Mexico. “We’ve got a lot of eggs in one basket,” Bruce Jowett, the council’s vice-president […] Read more
Watch costs, producers advised
Brenda Tjaden Lepp says some of the best marketing advice in this era of declining grain prices is on the cost side of the ledger. “You better have a pretty good handle on your costs,” said the chief analyst of FarmLink Marketing Solutions. Many growers rely on outdated numbers or only factor in variable costs. […] Read more
Feds fund pulse, canola market development
The pulse funding will be spent on marketing benefits of the crop, eliminating trade barriers and transferring knowledge
Federal agriculture minister Gerry Ritz kept busy making Growing Forward 2 funding announcements at CropSphere 2015. On Jan. 13, he doled out $3.3 million to Pulse Canada and other groups for market development initiatives. The announcement included $1.3 million to develop new tools for measuring the sustainability performance of Canadian grain, oilseed and pulse crops. […] Read morePesticide tolerance levels worry grower groups
Canadian commodity groups would like future free trade agreements to include a clause saying the partners accept the results of global joint reviews on pesticides. Poor countries used to rely on Codex, a United Nations body, to establish maximum residue limits (MRLs) for pesticides. However, Codex is way behind schedule, leading to massive delays in […] Read more
Feed mills could gain access to security program
There is a good chance the Canadian Grain Commission will expand its producer payment security program to include feed mills. “The (federal agriculture) minister has suggested he wants us to look at it and producer groups have suggested we should move in that direction, so we’re complying with what government wants and what stakeholders want,” […] Read more
No agreement on component pricing for canola
Canola group presents information about component pricing, but says issue requires further study
A Saskatoon farmer said he thinks the Saskatchewan Canola Development Commission is dragging its feet on its study of component pricing. A resolution was tabled at last year’s annual general meeting asking the SaskCanola board to explore the pluses and minuses of moving to a system that would feature rewards and penalties based on oil […] Read more… But the short term canola market is bearish
Brenda Tjaden Lepp doesn’t see much upside in oilseed prices, at least in the short-term. Canola will be flat for the foreseeable future and flax prices are likely heading down. She thinks growers should jump if the old crop canola bids that were available over the holiday season resurface. “I would not turn my nose […] Read more
