Today I’m thinking about diarrhea, chicken wings and boredom.
Let’s tackle them one-by-one, in reverse order:
BOREDOM: That’s how the ag markets reacted today to a minimally-surprising USDA supply and demand report. Here’s how a mid-day CME Group market repot summed up the USDA impact on soybeans: “The USDA’s supply/demand report this morning was considered neutral against expectations.” CME said the report was considered “slightly negative by traders” for wheat prices. The report was considered “bearish” for corn, but not in any big-dealie way. The report notes that the U.S. stocks to use ratio is “just 6.2 percent, which is the second lowest in history and compares with five percent for the 1995/96 season.” That’s when prices boomed. Bearish short term news plus bullish long term outlook equals: flat as a pancake reaction.
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Worrisome drop in grain prices
Prices had been softening for most of the previous month, but heading into the Labour Day long weekend, the price drops were startling.
So all in all a boring report that the market yawned off quickly. (I suspect nothing would make the markets explode right now. Its Christmas time, and everyone’s too cheery to get too greedy or too fearful. That’ll wait until the next USDA report in January, which is often explosive. Of course, saying this, I’ll probably be proved wrong Monday when prices blow through the roof . . . )
This brings us to:
CHICKEN WINGS: “The chicken wings have entered the building.” That line, uttered over the speakers at Hog and Poultry Days yesterday here in Winnipeg, alerted showgoers that an entertaining event was about to take place: a chicken wing eating contest. I didn’t watch it, so I don’t know who won or if anyone choked to death on chicken bones, but I must admit I was cheered by the fact that even in the aftermath of a brutal economic downturn, which destroyed many producers’ operations, careers and finances, people in the industry can still get together and be momentarily lighthearted. There’s a great future for this industry here in North America, methinks, but we’re just getting through a bad patch and may have a few rough years ahead of us. But fun and humour are key to keeping humans hopeful and focused, so this event was great attempt to put some smiles on faces that have frowning too much in recent years.
So we finally end up at:
DIARRHEA!!: Yes, diarrhea. One of the odd things about my career, I note to myself sometimes, is that I know inordinate amounts of stuff about pig digestive systems and sow gynecology. These are dangers faced by any beat reporter: pretty soon you know tonnes of stuff that no-one wants to hear about at dinner parties, but which you oddly find fascinating.
So I found myself fascinated as I listened to a series of presentations by University of Manitoba agriculture researchers, including one on using probiotics in pig diets. I’m always amazed that we know so much about the effect of various nutraceuticals, functional foods and minerals in livestock, but much less in humans. (I have noted this before, I know.) This comes from being able to control the feed of animals like pigs, but not humans. And it’s also a plus being able to slaughter the pigs and see what’s inside. Anyhow, I found the talk on probiotics in pigs fascinating, engaging, and something which I remember almost nothing of right now. Fortunately I have both notes and I recorded the presentation, so I can go back through it next week.
But I do remember the researcher talking about the effect of probiotics in either increasing or decreasing diarrhea in piglets, and that diarrhea was the main cause of ill health and death in piglets. So it seemed important.
And I also knew that it gave me the excuse to use “diarrhea” in a blog post headline. And that’s always an eyeball-grabber.
So there you have it: Diarrhea, chicken wings and boredom. Just another day in the fast-paced life of an agricultural reporter.
