Youth Ag-Summit delegate Samba Ouma of Kenya, giving his acceptance speech Thursday night. (Lisa Guenther photo)

Youth Ag-Summit: Two to represent at UN meeting

Two delegates from the 2015 Youth Ag-Summit will be jetting to Rome in October to take part in a meeting of the United Nations’ Committee on World Food Security. Australia’s Laura Grubb and Kenya’s Samba Ouma were selected from 80 nominees. Ouma and Grubb are now charged with presenting the Canberra Youth Ag Declaration — […] Read more

The Canadian Grain Commission is still working on its new insurance-based farmer payment protection program, says assistant chief commissioner Jim Smolik.   photo: allan dawson

Free grain-grading program arms farmers to better market their crop

The Canadian Grain Commission’s sampling program takes the guesswork out of grain grading

Reading Time: < 1 minute Of all the things a farmer can’t control, grain grading seems to cause the most headaches after harvest. “You all make your decisions during the year of what you’re going to seed, how you’re going to seed it, and what fertilizers and chemicals you’re going to use to try and maximize the profitability on your […] Read more


Brown mustard. (Peggy Greb photo courtesy ARS/USDA)

Mustard prices still high heading into harvest

CNS Canada –– The mustard market has been moving steadily higher in recent months, reacting to projections for reduced yield from Statistics Canada, which could spur selling straight out of harvest, one buyer says. Mustard prices gained throughout July and August, said Walter Dyck, a buyer for Olds Products. That’s largely due to estimates from […] Read more



(Scott Bauer photo courtesy ARS/USDA)

U.S. grains: Soybeans climb as China fears wane

Chicago | Reuters –– Benchmark U.S. soybean futures rose 1.5 per cent on Thursday as equity markets stabilized in China, the world’s top soy buyer, and on outlooks for dry weather as the U.S. Midwest growing season winds down, traders said. Corn clung to modest gains on better-than-expected weekly U.S. export sales and spillover strength […] Read more

(MonsantoStore.corpmerchandise.com)

Monsanto, rivals eye next step after Syngenta deal collapse

Chicago | Reuters –– Monsanto, having ditched an audacious US$46 billion offer for Syngenta, may downshift to a humbler strategy of beefing up its crop protection portfolio through other acquisitions, partnerships and licensing agreements. The deal’s collapse leaves Monsanto, Syngenta and other agrochemical sector companies facing a bleak landscape of plummeting grain prices and farm […] Read more


Germination is the most important grading factor for maltsters — without it, malt barley is “worth nothing,” 
says Rahr Malting’s Kevin Sich.

Making the Grade: Does your grain have what it takes to hit No. 1?

The word ‘subjective’ comes up a lot — here’s what you need to 
know about main grading factors for canola, wheat, and malt

Reading Time: 5 minutes After a summer of battling drought, insects, and hail, will your grain make the grade this harvest season? That’s what nearly 100 producers set out to find at a recent workshop hosted by the province’s canola, wheat, and barley commissions. And what they discovered at the Making the Grade workshop is that small things can […] Read more




(Canada Beef Inc. photo)

Barley’s genome now two-thirds sequenced

A team led by scientists at the University of California, Riverside says it has reached a new milestone in its work on sequencing the barley genome. In a release Tuesday, the researchers said they have sequenced large portions of the genome that together contain nearly two-thirds of all barley genes. Because barley is a close relative […] Read more