Chicago | Reuters –– U.S. corn, soybean and wheat futures rallied on Tuesday, supported by a steep decline in the U.S. dollar that made all three commodities more attractive to investors looking for a hedge against inflation, traders said. Wheat notched the biggest gain, with the front-month Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) contract surging 3.8 […] Read more

U.S. grains: Lower greenback sparks rally in wheat, corn, soy

Pearce: GFO goes informative rather than inflammatory
It’s not that farmers in Ontario aren’t frustrated and angry concerning legislation aimed at curbing the use of neonicotinoid seed treatments. They are. However, during a protest Friday in front of Ontario Deputy Premier Deb Matthews’ riding office in London, executives with the Grain Farmers of Ontario and roughly 35 farmers took a more proactive […] Read more

U.S. grains: Short-covering sparks rally in wheat
Chicago | Reuters –– U.S. wheat futures rallied 3.4 per cent on Monday, bouncing off of their lowest in nearly three weeks, on a round of short-covering, traders said. “Frankly this market was struggling to go down,” Arlan Suderman, senior market analyst at Water Street Solutions, said. “When you run out of sellers because they […] Read more
Farm and Country editor John Phillips, 88
A memorial is scheduled Saturday in Toronto for journalist John Phillips, who served 25 years as editor of the Ontario farming journal Farm and Country. Phillips died “peacefully” Wednesday at Credit Valley Hospital in Mississauga at age 88, according to his obituary. According to Farm and Country’s successor magazine Better Farming, Phillips was the now-defunct […] Read more

U.S. seeks middle ground on biofuel targets, pleasing few
New York | Reuters — U.S. regulators on Friday unveiled much-delayed biofuel targets that sought to strike a middle ground for the nation’s contentious renewable fuels policy but still met with threats of legal action from two of the biggest industries, oil and corn. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) decided to raise its previous target […] Read more

WHO cancer unit to analyze 2,4-D
Reuters — The World Health Organization is set to examine a widely used pesticide and agribusiness is bracing for bad news, less than three months after the group classified another popular herbicide as “probably” cancer-causing. Twenty-four scientists representing WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) will analyze scientific findings regarding links between cancer in […] Read more

U.S. grains: Corn drops, soybeans rise on new biofuel targets
Chicago | Reuters –– U.S. corn futures fell on Friday and posted a second straight weekly decline after the U.S. government lowered its targets for ethanol blending and as corn export demand slumped for the crop harvested this autumn. Soybeans rose about one per cent, led by sharply higher soybean oil futures as the U.S. […] Read more

Free guide available on dealing with treated seed
Guide offers stewardship practices on how to handle, store, transport and use treated seed
Reading Time: < 1 minute A new Guide to Treated Seed Stewardship provides a one-stop resource for those involved with handling, storage, transportation, and use of treated seed. Developed by a group of seed industry professionals, the guide offers best management practices for insecticide- and fungicide-treated seed. It is designed to complement CropLife Canada’s seed treatment operations standards, which provide uniform […] Read more

Que. pledges reserve to backstop risk management programs
Quebec’s agriculture ministry plans to set up a $300 million reserve fund to backstop any sudden shortfalls in provincial risk management program funds for farmers. Speaking Thursday to the provincial pork producer group, Les Eleveurs de porcs du Quebec, Agriculture Minister Pierre Paradis said the province will set up the reserve over the next two […] Read more

U.S. EPA proposing temporary pesticide-free zones for honeybees
Reuters — U.S. environmental regulators on Thursday proposed a rule that would create temporary pesticide-free zones to protect commercial honeybees, which are critical to food production and have been dying off at alarming rates. The restrictions are aimed at protecting bees from “pesticides that are acutely toxic” to them, and would cover foliar applications when […] Read more