Recent snowstorms and freezing temperatures have thrown a wrench into harvest plans in Manitoba and Alberta
Potato processing plants in Manitoba and Alberta may not run at full capacity this winter. About 20,000 acres of potatoes were in the ground in Manitoba as of the middle of October, and growers needed two weeks of favourable weather to harvest the crop. In Alberta, temperatures dropped to -7 to -14 C for several […] Read moreMarkets — page 341

Weather turns against Manitoba, N. Dakota soybean crops
In the third week of October, about a million acres of soybeans were not harvested in Manitoba. The situation was much worse in North Dakota, where 4.5 to five million acres were still in the field. If the weather is favourable and there’s a best-case scenario over the next few weeks, growers should be able […] Read more

Markets ponder China-U.S. trade deal, wheat problems
The energy in the agricultural futures markets last week was in wheat and hogs. Volatility was the name of the game in the Chicago hog market. It opened the week’s trade with a limit up move of three cents per pound, reacting optimistically to news on Oct. 11 that the United States and China had […] Read more

Canada must get serious about increasing trade with Asia
Whoever won the federal election (I’m writing this before the results are in), there will be no time for a victory lap or a long, defeated sobbing episode, at least for the International trade and foreign affairs ministers, old and maybe new. Canada has a tiny window of opportunity to try to defend some new […] Read more

Italy’s return to market pushes durum exports
Shipments to all customers increased 57 percent over last year, despite a 13 percent drop in production
Canadian durum exports are way up through the first 10 weeks of the 2019-20 campaign due to unexpectedly strong interest from an old friend. Grain companies shipped out 920,700 tonnes of the crop, a 57 percent increase over the same 10-week period last year and 41 percent above the five-year average, according to Canadian Grain […] Read more
O & T Farms honoured at sask. awards show
O & T Farms is the 33rd company inducted into the Saskatchewan Business Hall of Fame. It took place at the recent 2019 ABEX Awards in Saskatoon. A leader in innovation for 25 years, O & T has shifted away from poultry production to specialty feed ingredient production. The company has the capacity to annually […] Read more
South American dryness could prompt soy rally
A short crop in the U.S. in 2011 followed by poor harvests in Brazil and Argentina eventually led to US$17 per bu. prices
It hasn’t been a market mover yet but the poor start to South America’s 2019-20 soybean crop is raising some eyebrows. The accumulated 60-day precipitation level for the key soybean-growing areas of Brazil was 66 millimetres as of Oct. 18, which was 52 percent below normal. The same goes for Argentina, where it was 35 […] Read moreCanfax report
This cattle market information is selected from the weekly report from Canfax, a division of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association. More market information, analysis and statistics are available by becoming a Canfax subscriber by calling 403-275-5110 or at www.canfax.ca. Active fed trade Alberta direct cattle sales saw active trade last week with dressed sales $2-$2.50 per […] Read more
WP livestock report
Hogs The U.S. national live price average for barrows and gilts was $42.88 per hundredweight Oct. 18, up from $41.92 on Oct. 11. U.S. hogs averaged $56.87 on a carcass basis Oct. 18, up from $56.27 Oct. 11. The U.S. pork cutout was $77.03 per cwt. Oct. 18, down from $77.52 Oct. 11. The estimated […] Read more

Life in the afterglow of the commodity boom: Is this why we’re all so mad and raging?
Everybody wants somebody to blame. Better blame Mr CommoditiesCycle
It’s a truly dark time in Canada, with the rise of an angry, raging, denunciatory politics taking over this nation the way that it has been doing in the U.S. for a few years now. The federal election supplied ample evidence of this, with ill will and personal attacks hanging over the entire campaign. Beyond […] Read more