Prairie farmers could soon benefit from two re-energized institutions that have long been at the centre of prairie crop pricing and marketing. Or they could see these institutions fade and fail and the new post-monopoly environment become decidedly less farmer-friendly. If either manages to repackage itself successfully, it could become central to how thousands of […] Read more
Tag Archives Commodities
Grain trade omnipresent in Portage and Main area, but ignored
I’m always surprised by the way most Winnipeggers don’t realize the vital importance of the grain industry to downtown Winnipeg, and especially Portage and Main. The industry is the core of P and M, but few outside the area realize just how important it is. It’s certainly more important than Manitoba Hydro, which one hears […] Read more
Spring wheat not withering alone
Well, the good news is that spring wheat futures aren’t plunging all by themselves today. The bad news is that they have simply fallen along with all the other big North American crops, at about the same rate. Here are the present futures prices at about 10:30 as listed at barchart.com: It’s a grim part […] Read more
Wheat slumping, others flatting
Spring wheat today looks awful on the charts. It’s not easy being wheat. Of the spring variety. Nothing else looks as bad today. I’ve been away on holiday for the past 10 days, until yesterday, so catching up on the markets is always a little intimidating when i get back, and such it is this […] Read more
Floating cheerfully on the prairies above a sea of woe. Deja vuey
Right now I’m enjoying some holiday time with my wife and three little girls in Fargo, and boy is this bringing back some memories of the 1970s! In a good way. Most obviously this is because we are staying in a North Dakota hotel with a big, fun swimming pool, and back in the late […] Read more
Remembrance
Every year at this time I do a drive outside of Winnipeg to look for war memorials. It’s a small Remembrance pilgrimage for me. This year I went down the highway to Carman, then down to Winkler. At Winkler I got a coffee at McDonald’s, noted with approval the Remembrance Day wreath there on the […] Read more
Nevermore
November is a grim month. Leaves have fallen, the land is dead, darkness grows and the mind becomes occupied by regrets and the ghosts of betrayed hope. At this time every year I brush off my Poe and read The Raven, which seems to perfectly sum up the feel of the month. Here’s the final […] Read more
Journos fall into the inevitability of the logic
Yesterday I did a 45 minute phone interview with Canada’s leading expert on agricultural cooperatives and the history of coop movements. This, of course, was inspired by the CWB issue and me looking for wise words to set the historical context. As I got off the phone, I saw in my Twitter inbox that Karen […] Read more
Do farmers want to drive a Sherman or a Tiger? Which army would they rather command?
Believe it or not, this post is about grain marketing systems: CWB vs. open market. First, look at this fearsome tank: Would you like to be driving that in combat? It’s the German Tiger I and it was one of the three best tanks produced in the Second World War. The Tiger II and the […] Read more
Happy B-day CBC, and praise for a CBC Manitoba host/reporter
CBC’s 75 years old today and it deserves a hearty Happy Birthday! Lots of people gripe about it for various reasons – I’ve been part of that crowd at times – but without it we’d all be a lot worse off. There are things it does no-one else has the ability to do. (Yes, yes […] Read more
