Reading Time: 3 minutes There’s a huge good news story coming out of 2020 for crop producers. Or rather, three of them — demand is up, prices are good, and shipping is going like gangbusters. “Total volumes are up about 23 per cent year over year,” said Brennan Turner, CEO of online grain-marketing company FarmLead. “We moved about 8.34 […] Read more
Savour it: The stars have aligned for crop producers
Demand, prices and shipping are all strong, and that’s not something that happens very often
Organic acres level off in Alberta
Reading Time: < 1 minute After a decade of strong growth, the number of organic acres dipped slightly in Alberta last year, says a new report. But that was good compared to its next door neighbour, said the report by the Canada Organic Trade Association. “Saskatchewan demonstrated the largest acreage decline, with 119,099 fewer acres, followed by Alberta at 6,214 […] Read more
It was about time — harvest a totally different story this year
Yields and quality were all over the map, but most producers were able to get it done much earlier this year
Reading Time: 3 minutes It wasn’t perfect of course, but the difference between this year’s harvest and last year’s hellish one was stark. As of Oct. 6, about 90.2 per cent of crops in the province were off the field — nearly double the dismal 48.4 per cent figure from the province’s harvest report on Oct. 8, 2019. The […] Read more
Happy accident: Researchers discover promising new seed treatment
How it works is still a mystery, but new compound boosts germination, root development, and resistance
Reading Time: 5 minutes Good things generally don’t happen by accident in science — they’re the result of countless hours of trial and error, replication and peer review. However, University of Saskatchewan researchers may be looking at the closest thing to a scientific miracle: A natural seed treatment that increases germination in just about any crop you can name, […] Read more
Oats values hold steady at harvest
MarketsFarm — The oats market in Western Canada is holding relatively steady despite seasonal harvest pressure, although yields failed to live up to earlier expectations. “Steady at harvest time is good,” said Scott Shiels, grain procurement merchant with Grain Millers in Yorkton. Prices often dip at harvest time due to increased deliveries, he noted, but […] Read more
Wheat crop to be second-largest on record, StatsCan predicts
Canola estimate at lower end of trade predictions
MarketsFarm — Canada’s farmers will have grown their second-largest wheat crop on record in 2020, according to the first production estimates of the year from Statistics Canada, as released Monday. The government agency pegged total wheat production in the country for 2020-21 at 35.74 million tonnes, up 10.5 per cent on the year and second […] Read more
Canola crop expectations vary ahead of StatsCan report
MarketsFarm — Statistics Canada is due to publish its first production estimates for Canada’s 2020 growing season on Monday (Aug. 31). Late-season hot temperatures and a lack of rain may cause Canada’s canola production to be lower than originally expected, according to some market participants. Earlier in the growing season, Winnipeg-based FarmLink Agriculture Solutions published […] Read more
Richardson decision on oats decried
Reading Time: < 1 minute The Prairie Oat Growers Association is upset that Richardson Pioneer plans to only source milling oats that were not treated with a pre-harvest desiccant. The farm group said that “while we understand this is a business decision, POGA is extremely disappointed that customer demand is being driven by information that is not science based.” Glyphosate […] Read more
Ethical fashion is an emerging trend that will affect agriculture
We need value chains that reward excellence in the production of fibre and leather
Reading Time: 3 minutes The ever iconic Vogue magazine has cornered the fashion industry since 1892. The razor-sharp and trendy photos of women (and men) in dynamic, vibrant trend-setting clothing, always stirs the artist in oneself. From makeup to muck boots, this publication has earned its place in history. In May, Vogue published the most intriguing article titled ‘Regenerative […] Read more
Attention turns to yield potential after StatsCan report
Future tweaks to acreage numbers seen as unlikely to sway markets
MarketsFarm — Updated acreage estimates from Statistics Canada came largely within market expectations, with the focus now shifting to growing conditions and yield potential. The survey was completed in early June “and may not have captured all of the seeding delays and potential shifts that may have happened in central/northern Alberta and northwestern Saskatchewan because […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
