Crops
Reading Time: 3 minutes It’s easy to get a little giddy when things go much better than expected. For example, take last year’s bin buster of a crop. By any measure, it was an astounding production feat. Western Canadian farmers shattered all previous records on most major crops, growing a whopping 76 million tonnes, 50 per cent higher than […] Read more
The ‘new’ wore off of ‘normal’ pretty quickly
The grain industry may have gotten a little too optimistic after last year’s whopper of a crop
U.S. grains: Soybeans, wheat firm on bargain buying; corn slips
Chicago | Reuters –– Chicago Board of Trade soybeans and wheat firmed slightly on Wednesday as bargain hunters stepped into the market to provide a boost to commodities that were trending near four-year lows, traders said. Corn futures sagged as a likely record U.S. harvest in the coming weeks will flood the countryside with supplies. […] Read more
Have you got green standing canola in mid-September?
Consider swathing canola now — or at least a few days before the next expected killing frost, according to Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Development’s oilseed specialist Anastasia Kubinec. And if standing canola is frozen, be prepared to swath it as soon as possible, she said in an interview Monday. Swathing too soon can reduce […] Read more
Man. soybeans surviving recent unfavourable weather
CNS Canada –– Many areas of Manitoba have seen unfavourable cool, wet conditions recently, with frost reported in some areas — but the province’s soybean crops seem to be holding up OK. Frost seen on Sept. 12 and 13 caused some damage to soybean crops in the province, but it was mostly minimal, said Dennis […] Read more
Cargill says closing Memphis corn mill
Reuters — Cargill Inc. will close a corn mill in Memphis, Tenn., in January of next year, a move that will impact 440 employees, a company spokeswoman said. “The closure of the facility results primarily from the underutilization of the Memphis facility and its higher cost position,” spokeswoman Nicole Marlor said in a release, adding […] Read more
Pit traders abandon lawsuit against CME over grain rules
Chicago | Reuters — Veteran traders from Chicago’s grain pits on Tuesday dropped a lawsuit against CME Group that sought to reverse a change to end-of-day settlement rules they said was killing open-outcry business. The traders, who work on the Chicago Board of Trade’s 140-year-old agricultural trading floor, agreed to abandon their claims against the […] Read more
USDA chief says urged Buffett to ready BNSF for record crops
Washington | Reuters — U.S. Agriculture Secretary Thomas Vilsack met with Warren Buffett last week to urge the billionaire investor to make sure his BNSF railroad is ready for an expected record corn and soy harvest this year. Vilsack said on Tuesday that Buffett, who heads the sprawling conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway, recognized the challenge and […] Read more
Crop damage limited from freeze in northern U.S. Midwest
Chicago | Reuters –– The first freeze of the season hit the northern U.S. Midwest corn and soybean belt over the weekend, but the weather did not stay cold long enough to cause major damage to crops, agricultural meteorologists said on Monday. “There was some frost and a few light freezes but nothing that was […] Read more
U.S. spring wheat protein premiums soar after wet, cool summer
Chicago | Reuters — Cash prices for top quality U.S. hard red spring wheat are soaring as the rain-delayed harvest throws up lower-than-average protein levels, and traders and analysts said outsized premiums are likely to continue for months. Farmers are expecting the largest harvest in four years as wet, cool weather swells yields. But that […] Read more
Food ban, population influx seen boosting Russia grain demand
Moscow | Reuters — Russia’s ban on most Western food, the assimilation of the disputed Crimea region and people fleeing conflict in Ukraine are set to boost Russian grain demand this year, SovEcon, one of the country’s leading agriculture consultancies, said. Russia, expected to be the world’s third-largest wheat exporter this year, is harvesting a […] Read more