Markets
CHICAGO(Reuters) – U.S. wheat prices rose to roughly seven-month highs on Tuesday as low crop ratings and limited chances of rain in drought-hit parts of the Plains growing region kept attention on the risk of yield losses. The gains were fueled by U.S. Department of Agriculture data released late on Monday that rated the wheat […] Read more
Markets
Wheat rises to seven-month high on low U.S. crop ratings
Grain/Oilseed Review: Canola mixed after choppy day
Winnipeg (CNS Canada) – ICE Futures Canada canola contracts were narrowly mixed at Tuesday’s close, after bouncing around both sides of unchanged in choppy activity. Gains in Chicago Board of Trade soybeans and weakness in the Canadian dollar provided support for most of the day, with fund buying also underpinning the futures as speculators built […] Read more
Farm groups urge Trump not to weaken U.S. biofuel polic
(Reuters) – U.S. farm groups urged President Donald Trump in a letter on Monday not to weaken the nation’s biofuels policy requiring corn-based ethanol to be blended into gasoline, calling it a critical engine of rural American jobs. Trump is due to meet with senators and cabinet members on Tuesday to discuss potential tweaks to […] Read more
Dryness adds to bigger-than-expected U.S. cattle placements
CHICAGO, Feb 23 (Reuters) – Ranchers moved 4.4 percent more cattle into U.S. feedlots last month than in January 2017, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported on Friday, surpassing the high end of analysts’ average forecasts. Analysts partly attributed the placement outcome to severe drought in Texas and Oklahoma, along with continued dryness in […] Read more
Markets Moment – February 23, 2018
Mike Raine, The Western Producer’s managing editor, monitors trends in the North American and global agricultural markets and leads our staff markets coverage. Each week he also hosts a market video. The video is designed to help viewers understand the forces responsible for changes in the trade. If agricultural markets are important to you, we […] Read more
USDA sees slight decline in U.S. 2018 corn, soy productio
ARLINGTON, Va., (Reuters) – The U.S. corn and soybean harvests for 2018 were forecast to come in below the levels reached in 2017 but supplies should remain abundant, the U.S. Agriculture Department said on Friday. The United States is the world’s biggest corn producer and exporter, and the No. 2 soybean exporter after Brazil. U.S. […] Read more
Canola firms despite worries over carryout
Winnipeg (CNS Canada) – The ICE Futures Canada canola complex finished higher on Thursday, despite growing fears that this year’s carryout could get much larger. “We might end up being under last year’s number for exports,” said a trader in Winnipeg. “That means our carryout could balloon to 2.5 million tonnes pretty easily.” He adds […] Read more
Former PM urges Ottawa to take tough stance with NAFTA
Know what’s in your grain contracts and make sure they protect and reward you as much as they protect and reward the buyer. That was advice from a seasoned sunflower marketer, speaking at CropConnect, to farmers thinking about contracting the crop. It makes a lot of sense because farmers can end up on the delivery […] Read more
Pig disease runs amok, wild
A virus that is “probably the worst disease we have on this planet” for pigs is seeping into central Europe, spreading across Russia’s central Asian expanses and on the threshold of breaking into China. African Swine Fever (ASF) could devastate some of the world’s most important pig herds and provide Canada’s industry with market opportunities. […] Read more
No bunch of flax, prices should soon rise
Chuck Penner has been bullish flax for a long time, but the crop isn’t co-operating. “It hasn’t listened to me. The flax prices have been just flat, maybe even softer a little bit the last few weeks,” said the analyst from LeftField Commodity Research. However, he remains optimistic that prices are eventually going to get […] Read more
