Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Mercantile Exchange livestock futures were lower on Thursday, with live cattle prices easing from recent contract highs on technical selling ahead of a major winter storm forecast to hit U.S. cattle country, traders said. Feeder cattle futures fell to a roughly 1-1/2 week low, pressured in part by rising corn […] Read more

Rural economic development has been given a promotion at the federal level in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s latest cabinet shuffle. In the shuffle, following the departure of Treasury Board president Scott Brison from cabinet, Trudeau on Monday called up Bernadette Jordan, MP for the southern Nova Scotia riding of South Shore-St.Margaret’s, to head a newly […] Read more

Data and maps from weather stations across the Prairies are available to Glacier FarmMedia members at the WeatherFarm website, where you can also sign up for a daily forecast email for your area. On the go? Get the WeatherFarm mobile app, available for iPhone and Android devices. To learn more about the CoCoRaHS system that generates these […] Read more

Chicago | Reuters — Live cattle futures rose to life-of-contract highs at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange on Tuesday, lifted by worries that severe winter weather could prompt beef packers to pay higher prices for animals in the U.S. Plains, traders said. Technical buying and short-covering also buoyed cattle prices while lean hog futures finished narrowly […] Read more

Chicago | Reuters — U.S. lean hog futures fell for the second straight session on Monday, sliding to a one-week low on pressure from technical selling and a lack of bullish information to propel gains, traders and analysts said. Feeder cattle futures also eased to the lowest since Jan. 7, while more actively traded live […] Read more

Chicago | Reuters — When the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced a slew of key farm reports would not be released on Friday due to the partial government shutdown, the phones at crop forecaster Gro Intelligence blew up. The USDA was set to release its views on the projected size of U.S. soybean stockpiles, among […] Read more

Rio de Janeiro/Brasilia | Reuters — New Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro issued an executive order on Wednesday making the agriculture ministry responsible for deciding on lands claimed by indigenous peoples, in a victory for agribusiness that will likely enrage environmentalists. The temporary decree, which will expire unless it is ratified within 120 days by Congress, […] Read more

To learn more about the CoCoRaHS system that generates these precipitation maps — or if you’d like to make the maps even better by becoming a CoCoRaHS volunteer – check out the CoCoRaHS website.  

CNS Canada — The above-normal temperatures Western Canada has generally experienced since the fall weren’t necessarily caused by an El Nino. Rather, to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the phenomenon that’s likely affected the weather was a ‘blob’ that formed off of the coast of British Columbia. “It’s a big warm pocket of ocean water and […] Read more

Chicago | Reuters — Illinois farmer Brent Johnson had planned to bump up his corn acreage by 10 per cent in 2019 and plant fewer soybeans as a way to shelter himself from the lower soy prices caused by U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff war with China. But some early winter storms caused him to […] Read more