Markets
WINNIPEG, Manitoba, Aug 10 (Reuters) – Canadian officials are in Beijing this week to try to convince China to back off a plan to toughen its standard for Canada’s canola shipments, which threatens to stalled $2 billion in trade, government and industry officials said on Wednesday. China’s quarantine authority AQSIQ told Ottawa in February that […] Read more
Markets
Profit-taking undercuts CME live cattle futures
CHICAGO, Aug 8 (Reuters) – Chicago Mercantile Exchange live cattle futures closed lower on Monday, pressured by fund selling and profit-taking after last week’s market rally, traders said. August live cattle ended 0.750 cent per lb lower at 116.925 cents. October closed 0.875 cent lower at 114.650 cents and below the 100-day moving average of […] Read more
Hay quality poor, but prices back to normal
The hay market in Saskatchewan went temporarily crazy in July last year. Sellers of decent quality hay were asking $150 to $200 per ton, and buyers were willing to pay the extraordinary prices. The price spike didn’t last into the fall, and it’s unlikely buyers will pay high prices this summer. Most hay produced this […] Read more
Bin-busting crops bad for prices
Good news in the field for Canadian and American grain farmers means bad news for the new crop feedgrains market. Expectations of massive corn and wheat crops, with a voluminous western Canadian barley crop, have hammered down prices and given little reason to hope for better values this autumn. “The amount of barley bushels that […] Read more
Highlights of strong year for Canadian export crops
The 2015-16 crop year is over, bringing to an end another season of robust exports. It will be another month or so before Statistics Canada publishes its July data, allowing for an official tally, but the latest forecast from Agriculture Canada of total grain, oilseed and pulse crop exports in 2015-16 is 48.26 million tonnes. […] Read more
Alberta fires give GDP biggest hit since 2009
OTTAWA (Reuters) — Canada’s economy suffered its biggest one-month contraction in May since March 2009 as wildfires in northern Alberta caused a sharp drop in oil extraction, reinforcing expectations that the economy shrank in the second quarter. Monthly gross domestic product fell .6 percent in May, data from Statistics Canada showed July 29, exceeding economists’ […] Read more
Precision feeding helps hogs live better, produce longer
DES MOINES, Iowa — Bringing Big Data into the sow barn would allow every sow to have a different ration. If enough data collection and management are being done, a sow could live longer, eat less and help make a much better herd. That’s what Curtiss Littlejohn was saying about the evolution of electronic sow […] Read more
Unapproved GM wheat found in Wash. field: USDA
REUTERS — Genetically modified wheat developed by Monsanto and never approved by United States government regulators, has been found growing in a Washington state farm field, said the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The discovery of 22 unapproved genetically modified wheat plants has prompted an investigation by federal and state investigators — the third such discovery […] Read more
Lower costs, higher prices boost Maple Leaf profits
Reuters — Maple Leaf Foods reported a quarterly profit that squeezed past estimates as lower operating costs and increased pricing more than offset a fall in volumes in its meat products business. The company, whose brands include Schneiders and namesake Maple Leaf, recently completed a program started in 2010 to boost earnings by shutting some […] Read more
Co-op sees future in fertilizer
Federated Co-op Ltd. has begun work on two high-throughput fertilizer terminals in Western Canada. The terminals in Hanley, Sask., and Brandon will cost $75 million and are expected to be operational in early 2017. “These facilities will warehouse, blend and distribute a full suite of crop nutrient products that will then be available to producers […] Read more
