MarketsFarm — The decision by the U.S. to halt the import of Russian petroleum products due to the country’s invasion of Ukraine created sticker shock at the pumps in North America — but an end to that invasion would not necessarily mean an end to high fuel prices. On March 15, the average price of […] Read more

Fuel prices may remain high beyond Russian invasion, expert says

AGT building oat milling plant in Saskatchewan
Regina pulse processor AGT Foods plans to bulk up its portfolio in the plant-based ingredients business with a new oat milling operation in central Saskatchewan. The company on Thursday announced it would start construction “immediately” on the new operation, to be housed in an expansion of its existing processing plant just east of Aberdeen, about […] Read more

Forecasting the future: What crop will be king in the coming year?
Oats is being touted as the profitability champion, but canola’s reign also looks set to continue
Reading Time: 4 minutes Scott Keller is pretty impressed with the latest crop profitability outlook from Manitoba’s Ag Department — but he’s not buying its prediction that oats will be this year’s No. 1 money-maker. Canola is still king and its reign isn’t going to end any time soon, said the grain farmer from New Norway. “Nothing will even […] Read more

Taking the two-week grain-free challenge is worthwhile
Removing grain or processed feeds from your horse can be a good starting point in identifying dietary issues
Reading Time: 3 minutes Even though the ‘two-week no-grain challenge’ may be anxiety inducing, implementing it can offer surprisingly beneficial results for both horse and human. Humans often equate food with love and unknowingly project these feelings on to their animal family — cats, dogs and horses. So this grain-free challenge, touted in some horse websites and forums, often triggers […] Read more

StatsCan confirms tight grain and oilseed stocks
Canadian corn stocks up on year
MarketsFarm — Canada’s tight supplies of canola, wheat and other crops following the 2021 Prairie drought received more confirmation from Statistics Canada with the release of updated stocks data on Tuesday. Canola stocks, as of Dec. 31, 2021, of 7.6 million tonnes were down 43 per cent from the previous year and the tightest since […] Read more

Yield contest aims to make every grower a winner
Ontario and two American states launch their version of Yield Enhancement Network
Reading Time: 4 minutes A wheat-growing competition that started in the U.K. has crossed the Atlantic with the promise of helping farmers increase their yields. Started by a British agricultural consultancy a decade ago, a Yield Enhancement Network — or YEN — uses an annual competition as a learning tool by having participating farmers share field data. Computer modelling […] Read more

Oat prices, acres to rise in 2022, analyst says
MarketsFarm — An independent crop market analyst told Saskatchewan oat growers he is bullish for the crop in 2022. Brennan Turner, founder and former CEO of online crop marketing platforms FarmLead and Combyne Ag, delivered a presentation at the Saskatchewan Oat Development Commission’s (SaskOats) annual general meeting in Saskatoon on Wednesday. Turner, a Foam Lake […] Read more

Gross revenue tally provides ‘interesting’ take on drought impact
If you had average yields and captured high fall prices, your per-acre revenue might have gone up
Reading Time: 2 minutes It won’t be of any comfort for those who had a wreck this year, but high prices mean gross revenue for most crops may have been as good or better for some compared to last year, according to a provincial market analyst. “Using the average yields and prices, there is a significant offset of the […] Read more

When it comes to new varieties, there’s a need for speed, says breeder
Creating the equivalent of a 22-hour day can speed up variety development by six times
Reading Time: 4 minutes Combining ‘speed breeding’ with new genomic tools will be able to deliver big dividends for farmers in the coming years, says a plant breeder using the accelerated breeding technique. “It really highlights that we can bring these technologies together to improve genetic gain in the crops of the future,” said Lee Hickey, an associate professor […] Read more

2021 was a bad crop year, but not 2002 bad
Reading Time: < 1 minute It was the worst year in a generation but production in Alberta was still considerably better than 2002. For example, spring wheat production this year fell to 5.71 million tonnes (according to the latest StatCan estimates). But that’s more than double the 2.59 million tonnes in 2002. On a per-seeded-acre basis, it was 35.9 bushels per […] Read more