Producers who came in when prices were high are now leaving the business; some say sector has lost one million acres
There is plenty of uncertainty in the organic market, and processors are hesitant to do much forward contracting of crops.
Profitability has been squeezed but situation not terrible
If the world remains more concerned about a recession than it does about hunger and higher food prices, farmers might have to wait through some glum months of disappointing prices and high costs until there’s better profitability.
But if those tightening stocks keep getting tighter, farmers’ profitability situation might get brighter in a hurry.
Global supply-demand environment keeps traders relaxed
Crop markets have been falling of late because of slow demand and generally favourable weather around the world. I’ll first cover the factors weighing down prices and later note the spots with production issues that could support prices. The cool spring in grain production areas of Canada and the United States has slowed field work […] Read more
Flooding stops Mississippi River barge traffic
Closures that could last for weeks will force grain and fertilizer shippers to find more costly transportation alternatives
CHICAGO, Ill. (Reuters) — The U.S. Department of Agriculture has halted barge traffic across a wide swath of the upper Mississippi River, it said April 27, as record winter snowfall is melting and flooding into waterways. The closures will force grain and fertilizer shippers to find alternative, potentially more costly, transportation by truck or rail, […] Read more
Speak up when necessary; it does result in change
Most members of the public today have only a rudimentary understanding of agriculture.
While efforts have been made to improve agriculture’s presence in the education system, much more must be done.
Recalling the short, unhappy history of carbon sequestration
There’s nothing neutral about “carbon neutrality” and our wishful thinking won’t make it so.
Remembering the last civil service strike
We had to use the dreaded “n/a” last week on our markets chart page because of the federal civil service strike. Elevator shipment data for Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba comes from the Canadian Grain Commission, whose employees belong to the Public Service Alliance of Canada and were part of the strike The data gap could […] Read more
Variable rate technology adoption faces hurdles
Variable rate technology is a powerful tool and it will be the way of the future, but for now most producers don’t believe it’s worth the time, effort and money.
High costs slow hog barn construction
Aaron Juergens of the Iowa Pork Producers Association said construction ground to a halt in 2020 with the pandemic. It’s hard to get a sense of expected costs when there are so few barns being built.
Ag community excited about genomics’ future
Genome Prairie works to get expensive equipment into the hands of smaller companies and agricultural organizations
For farmers in the field, quick genomics assessment offered by services like the Manitoba Canola Growers’ Pest Surveillance Initiative enables producers to know what problems they’re dealing with.
