conference presentation

Wheat buyers pumped when Alberta farmers visit

Wheat buyers have all kinds of questions from mycotoxins and food safety 
to supply and crop data, and they also want to meet growers in person

Reading Time: 4 minutes When Lynn Jacobson went to Asia on a trade mission, he found his preconceived notions were completely wrong. “My preconception of what society was like over there was completely changed,” said the grain farmer from Enchant. “I thought they were 10 to 15 years behind us, but in some ways they’re 10 to 15 years […] Read more

Ottawa extends grain order

Minimum amounts 
will vary throughout 
the winter


Reading Time: < 1 minute Ottawa’s new order-in-council extends the mandatory minimum weekly grain handle until March 28. But instead of a flat 536,250 tonnes of grain per week for both CN and CP Rail, the amounts vary. Until, Dec. 20, each railway must move 345,000 tonnes per week. That drops to 200,000 tonnes weekly from Dec. 21 to Jan. 3, rises […] Read more


grain ship at port

There’s a mountain of grain to move

A big carry-over means there’s a whopping 
73 million tonnes of 
grain to move

Reading Time: 3 minutes This year’s grain crop might not be as big as last year’s bin-buster, but there’s still going to be “heavy demands” on the rail transportation system this winter. “The initial projections from Stats Canada for the 2014 crop are 57 million tonnes in western Canada — still a very large crop,” said Bruce McFadden, director […] Read more

Letter to the editor, Dec. 5, 2014

Rod Nickel’s article,“Canada’s wheat exports dogged by quality complaints,” incorrectly states that there has been an increase in the number of complaints from buyers of Canadian wheat since the removal of the single desk marketing authority from the Canadian Wheat Board. Since 2011-12, the last crop year that Canadian wheat was marketed through the Canadian […] Read more


a group of conservationists

Initiative aims to showcase the benefits of growing winter wheat

Ducks Unlimited Canada teams up with Lakeland ag students to explore winter wheat’s potential

Reading Time: 2 minutes To many agricultural producers, winter wheat is an unknown and untried commodity. But a new project by Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC) is intended to show winter wheat can add to a producer’s pocketbook, the land’s productivity, and nature’s ecological balance. This fall, DUC conservation specialist Bryon Wolters invited Lakeland’s crop technology students to take part in […] Read more



wheat heads

Manitoba farm group calls for mandatory price reporting

Keystone Agricultural Producers asks government to follow the lead 
of the USDA and require companies to report sales information

Reading Time: 2 minutes Farmers are finding the promise of marketing freedom rings hollow in the absence of enough price information to make informed decisions. That’s prompted Keystone Agricultural Producers, Manitoba’s main farm group, to call on the federal and provincial governments to implement mandatory price reporting on agricultural commodities, similar to what exists in the U.S. “We’ve been […] Read more



one dollar banknote among wheat grains

New wheat-marketing system isn’t just a mess — it’s a great big mess

With Canada’s wheat selling at a discount to Russia’s, it’s time 
to admit the new open market isn’t working as it should

Reading Time: 3 minutes Critics of the Canadian Wheat Board used to routinely point to published price quotes for U.S. Dark Northern Spring (DNS) wheat from the Pacific Northwest (PNW) and assume that was a benchmark price for all wheat sold in the world. If the board got less, it must have screwed up, said the critics. In fact, […] Read more

IGC raises forecast for 2014-15 global corn crop

London | Reuters — The International Grains Council on Thursday raised its forecast for the 2014-15 world corn (maize) crop, reflecting an upward revision to production in China. Global corn production was forecast to total 982 million tonnes, up from a previous forecast of 980 million and just shy of the prior season’s record 984 […] Read more