The Canadian Wheat Board faces a tough battle to survive as a voluntary pool competing against grain-handling heavyweights, two former chief executives of the monopoly seller say. The big three Canadian grain handlers — Viterra, Richardson International and Cargill — won’t easily welcome a new competitor and the board is hobbled without elevators and port […] Read more
CWB’s former CEOs see tough road ahead
Red River to crest in Winnipeg this week
A weekend storm that brought snow, rain and strong winds to the already flooded Red River Valley created large waves but did not inflict major damage on flood defenses in Manitoba. The Red River is expected to peak in Winnipeg on Wednesday or Thursday at levels slightly below those of 2009 and 2006, and well […] Read more
CWB to survive without monopoly, Ritz says
The Canadian Wheat Board, the last major agricultural marketing monopoly in the world, can survive the loss of its exclusive hold over the buying and selling of Western Canada’s wheat and barley and compete in an open system, Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz told Reuters on Tuesday. Ritz’s Conservative Party won a majority government on Monday, […] Read more
Prairie seeding still on hold, better weather coming
Western Canada’s farmers will likely keep their tractors parked this week at a time when they’re usually seeding crops, as fields remain flooded after a stretch of cool temperatures, a Canadian Wheat Board official said. Seeding has not started and looks 10 days to three weeks behind schedule, the same outlook as a week ago, […] Read more
Flood forces CN, CP to close Man. rail lines
Flooding caused by the Red River’s steady rise has forced Canadian Pacific Railway to reroute trains on one Manitoba branch line and to close another, while Canadian National Railway has closed a secondary line. The Manitoba government was building dikes Wednesday across two of CP’s lines to protect the towns of Emerson and Morris against […] Read more
Cattle, crops at risk from N.D. floods, snow
Snowstorms on top of flooding in North Dakota have not yet resulted in many cattle deaths as feared, but lingering cold, wet weather threatens the state’s herd, a U.S. Department of Agriculture official said Tuesday. Spring temperatures are well below normal in North Dakota, a key U.S. grower of spring wheat and sugarbeets and the […] Read more
Prairie seeding seen 10 days to three weeks behind
Farmers in Western Canada’s waterlogged crop belt expect to plant their crops 10 days to three weeks behind schedule, raising the risk of lower yields and quality, a Canadian Wheat Board official said Monday. Snowfall late last week and through the weekend worsened wet conditions that have kept tractors idle this spring. Planting delays leave […] Read more
Prairie flooding delays seeding two weeks so far
Farmers in flooded Western Canada look to plant at least two weeks later than normal as average to heavy snowpack melts on saturated fields and causes rivers to overflow. The most optimistic scenario would see farmers in Saskatchewan and Alberta, the two biggest producers of wheat and canola, start planting in early May, assuming that […] Read more
South Australian Harvest Boosts Viterra Profit
Reading Time: < 1 minute Viterra Inc., Canada’s biggest grain handler and farm retailer, posted its biggest-ever first-quarter profit March 9, easily beating expectations, as the company reaped the benefits of a record harvest in South Australia and high crop prices. “This is a great time to be in the business of producing and marketing food ingredients as the world’s […] Read more
South Korea And China Seen Opening Soon For Beef
Reading Time: 2 minutes Canada and South Korea are “very, very close” to diplomatically resolving an eight-year-old dispute over Canada’s beef exports, the Canadian agriculture minister said Mar. 23. Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said talks have made progress as a decision from a World Trade Organization panel approaches. “We’re hoping we can do something diplomatically,” he said on an […] Read more
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