Canola is many farmers’ biggest moneymaker, and good crop rotation is many farmers’ best financial hedge. However, those two factors have collided in a way that is undermining not only individual farmers’ security but also those of their neighbours, and even the future of the canola industry itself. For two decades, I’ve heard agronomists urge […] Read more
Tag Archives Hedge Row — page 9
Thoughts, theories, lots of questions for 2017
This is the traditional time for lists of things likely or possible to happen in the coming year, so here are mine for 2017’s agricultural markets: I throw this in here because it could actually happen and because most of the rest of my list is dismal. If world growth begins grinding higher, that will […] Read more
Late season rain wreaks havoc with crop quality
All of a sudden it seems like “Game on!” for new crop marketing. Instead of a clogged grain handling system glutted with mountains of good wheat, oceans of canola and piles of beautiful lentils, it now looks like farmers and the industry will be moving a far more variegated crop and there will be many […] Read more
Watch for wild cards when hedging market risks
Here’s a good example of how a professional risk management specialist looks into a key window. It’s a way to see the mental mathematics you need to be master of if you want to adequately address your market risk in any commodity. Set-up The fourth quarter of each year brings unique risk in hog markets. […] Read more
Farmers need first-hand market assessment
It’s possible that Canada has thrown away its grain quality advantage and farmers don’t even know it. It’s not yet clear that this is happening, but producers need to wake up and demand that all parts of the grain industry ensure Canada’s hard-won reputation is maintained. Farmers need to know what customers think about the […] Read more
Profits will be harder to find in future markets
Welcome back to normal. It’s not nice, it’s not easy and it will destroy some, but unfortunately in farming, zero margins like those of today are the norm in a century and a half of North American crop production. Over the long, long term, the cost of producing crops averages about what farmers as a […] Read more
Some markets more hassle than they’re worth
Some markets aren’t worth having. That’s a line I’ve heard hog market analyst and economist Steve Meyer use a couple of times in recent years about U.S. pork sales to Russia, which are often disrupted by cynical-seeming blockages. However, I think it equally well applies to Canadian meat and crop sales to Russia. Canada is […] Read more
Railways need crop forecasting assistance to plan service
No one in the prairie grain industry relies on government departments and agencies to give them the true size of a crop. However, that’s something Canadian National Railway admits doing. I was surprised — shocked, actually — when I heard this from CN executive vice-president and chief marketing officer Jean-Jacques Ruest in both a speech […] Read more
