FORREST, Man. — With his body at 30 degrees from vertical, Dan Mazier leaned and pushed a rotating auger into the ground as he and two others drilled an anchor into the soil. Mazier’s exertion wasn’t part of a construction project. Instead, they were drilling the anchor into the soil so that they could take […] Read more
News
Wind project faces turbulence
Offering helping hand nets trucker big bill
Bill Homans helped out a neighbour three weeks ago by hauling 13 of the neighbour’s steers to the auction market in Fort Macleod, Alta. He got a $354 ticket for his trouble. It wasn’t the first time the rancher from Pincher Creek, Alta., has hauled cattle for others, and his neighbours sometimes haul for him. […] Read more
Management must embrace technology to see profit
LEDUC, Alta. – Hope is not a strategy for successful farming, says an Australian livestock specialist. “Planning is essential,” Richard Apps told sheep producers at their annual Alberta Sheep Breeders Association symposium. He said sheep producers made money even in the midst of Australia’s worst drought. Those who did so enjoyed a higher percentage of […] Read more
Viterra delves into fuel service
Viterra is getting into the commercial and farm fuel market in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. The company will acquire 24 of Imperial Oil’s secondary fuel storage terminals on the Prairies and will deliver bulk Esso fuel to farmers, said Doug Wonnacott, Viterra’s chief operating officer for agri-products. “It’s a long term supply agreement,” he said. […] Read more
Wheat supply burdensome
Bulging wheat bins around the world will push prices lower, says a market analyst. In its latest World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates, the United States Department of Agriculture raised its global wheat production forecast by 2.6 million tonnes to 683.3 million tonnes. “The crop got a little bit bigger. Now we’re firmly the second […] Read more
Margin management more important than wheat board
I predict a Golden Age of Disappointment to follow the end of the Canadian Wheat Board’s monopoly. At least it will be for those who have exercised their lungs aggressively for 20 years about the allegedly overwhelming importance of the issue. For less ideological farmers, it’ll be just another year of grinding out a margin […] Read more
Cuba sees success in reforming food production system
Reforms that have started to liberalize 50-year-old rules restricting farming and land ownership in Cuba are spurring a revival in the country’s food production system, say two activists. Some land formerly part of state farms has been made available to farmers, markets have been opened, farm produce prices and incomes have risen and land is […] Read more
U.S. winter wheat bounces back with rain
World wheat markets are closely following the condition of the winter wheat crop in Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, which has received recent welcome rain. “There’s going to be a direct correlation between wheat prices and the state of the U.S. crop,” said Canadian Wheat Board market analyst Neil Townsend. If that crop somehow rebounds from […] Read more
Russia to sell 49 percent of state owned grain trader
MOSCOW, Russia (Reuters) – The Russian government will sell about 49 percent of the country’s main state grain trader, according to an order signed by president Dmitry Medvedev and published in the government gazetteRossiiskaya Gazeta. It orders the government to organize an additional issue of shares in the trader, the United Grain Co., within six […] Read more
Flood takes toll on Manitoba ranching family
“Tom, there’s the goat,” exclaimed Michelle with a burst of unexpected happiness as she and her husband showed a visitor her farm’s flood-ravaged yard and adjoining reed-covered pasture. “I hadn’t expected to see that one again.” A couple of hundred metres away, a white goat picked its way through the wild growth and new brush […] Read more
