MANITOBA SOUTHWEST Seeding after June 20 A few days of warm weather may have allowed a few producers in the region to seed a crop after the June 20 insurance deadline. However, less than 30 percent of cropland has been seeded this year south of the Trans-Canada Highway. Producers are spraying cereal crops for weeds […] Read more
News
Western Producer Crop Report – for Jun. 30, 2011
Canfax Report – for Jun. 30, 2011
The sharp gains in Chicago futures and cash cattle that started the previous week in the United States washed into western Canadian markets last week. The Canfax fed steer weighted average price was $102.20 per hundredweight, up $4.05 from the previous week, and heifers were $101.54, up $4.37. Rail prices were up about $7. Chicago […] Read more
Harvesting volunteer canola not recommended
Thousands of prairie fields are a mess this year. They haven’t been seeded and are too wet to be sprayed or worked. But some farmers might be looking at yellow fields of volunteer canola and wondering if there’s a golden lining to this production cloud: why not let the volunteer crop grow and then harvest […] Read more
Shopping made simple at the Boar Store
CLUNY, Alta. — Buying breeding animals sight unseen is common in the hog industry, but a Quebec based genetics company wants to change that. “Before everybody got so concerned about health protocol and biosecurity, people were able to go to somebody else’s barn and pick the boars they wanted,” said Barry Tomiski, vice-president of business […] Read more
Western Producer Livestock Report – for Jun. 30, 2011
U.S. HOG PRICES HIT RECORD Tight supply and strong pork exports to South Korea and China drove U.S. cash hog prices to record highs. Packers had to chase supply to fill contracts for the coming July 4 holiday barbecue demand. Hog prices might fall now that the holiday demand has been met. U.S. pork exports […] Read more
Unseeded area estimates grow
Farm groups in Saskatchewan and Manitoba think there will be more unseeded acres than the Canadian Wheat Board is forecasting. The board released an estimate June 14 of 6.5 million unplanted acres in the two provinces, down from 10 million acres last year. It said the number could be as low as six million or […] Read more
Producers worry about hog care plan’s uncertain rules
FORT SASKATCHEWAN, Alta. — Alberta pork producers are confident their animals are well cared for, but they aren’t willing to tie their sales to an animal safety program whose rules are still uncertain. The voluntary Animal Care Assessment program was introduced in 2005 as a way to allow producers to demonstrate their high quality animal […] Read more
Rain or snow, sleet or hail, we want to know
Here’s a quick quiz. What has been the top story in western rural Canada so far this year? a) weather b) weather c) weather If you chose one of the above, you are obviously correct. The only other story that even comes close is labour disputes, but not getting your mail for three weeks does […] Read more
Debt levels strain farmers
Despite record farm debt levels in Canada, farmers have never been more asset-rich, says Statistics Canada. But the percentage of income required to service debt last year also increased with interest rate increases and larger debt servicing expenses expected as early as this autumn. Last year, farm equity rose $8.6 billion to $282.4 billion, a […] Read more
Centre for food will study supply management impact
The Canadian food industry is one of Canada’s best-kept economic secrets, says the Conference Board of Canada. As part of its plan to design a proposed national food strategy, the business-financed research organization has published a report that details the extent of the food industry’s impact on the Canadian economy. It includes creating 2.3 million […] Read more
