At capacity, Roquette’s Portage la Prairie pea plant will be able to process 125,000 tonnes of yellow peas per year. (CNW Group/Roquette)

Pulse weekly outlook: Roquette plant now contracting organic yellow peas

Pricing to be at 'sustainable' level for growers

MarketsFarm — Roquette is now contracting for conventional and organic yellow peas for its new processing plant near Portage la Prairie, Man. After construction is finished at the end of 2020, the 200,000-square foot facility will work its way up to processing 125,000 tonnes of yellow peas per year. “We will be receiving peas in […] Read more

(Sakakawea7/iStock/Getty Images)

U.S. EPA approves XtendiMax use for five years

Court ruling had blocked dicamba sales

Chicago | Reuters — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will allow farmers for the next five years to spray crops with a Bayer herbicide whose sales were blocked by a U.S. appeals court in June, EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler said Tuesday. XtendiMax, a dicamba-based herbicide that is sprayed on soybeans and cotton genetically engineered to […] Read more


CBOT December 2020 corn with 20-, 50- and 100-day moving averages. (Barchart)

U.S. grains: Corn futures fall after hitting 14-month high

Rains expected to benefit wheat crops; traders watch China to buy more U.S. corn, soy

Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Board of Trade corn futures ended lower on Tuesday after reaching their highest prices in more than a year on strong U.S. export demand. Soybean futures backpedaled after hitting their highest price since July 2016 on Monday. Wheat also slumped. Profit-taking weighed on corn after prices initially rose on a […] Read more

Husky Energy’s ethanol plant at Minnedosa, Man., about 45 km north of Brandon. (HuskyGrain.com)

Cenovus to get Prairies’ biggest ethanol maker in Husky sale

Plants can take up to 750,000 tonnes of wheat, corn, rye per year

A proposed takeover of Husky Energy by Cenovus Energy is expected to create not only Canada’s third-biggest oil and gas producer but also a new owner for the Prairies’ biggest ethanol business. The two Calgary companies on Sunday announced a friendly all-stock deal which would see Husky shareholders get 0.7845 of a Cenovus share — […] Read more


CBOT November 2020 soybeans with Bollinger (20,2) bands. (Barchart)

CBOT weekly outlook: After October rally, November ‘is for bears’

MarketsFarm — Commodities on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) have seen a counter-season rally, with a correction expected in the near future. “Markets are definitely overbought,” said Scott Capinegro of Barrington Commodity Brokers in Barrington, Ill. “It’s harvest and we’re still rallying.” World weather conditions are part of the driving force behind the rally, […] Read more

Not everyone has as many bins to fill as this operation east of Didsbury, but most producers in Alberta had their crops off the field much earlier this year. However, yields and quality were a mixed story across the province.

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


Research funding provides new barley varieties

Research funding provides new barley varieties

Reading Time: < 1 minute The Canadian Barley Research Coalition is investing $2.7 million over five years in the University of Saskatchewan’s Crop Development Centre to develop barley varieties with improved agronomics, disease resistance and end-use quality. The research coalition is a collaboration between Alberta Barley and its Prairie sister organizations. The last round of funding by the coalition led […] Read more

(Bhofack2/iStock/Getty Images)

Cream of Wheat maker to buy Crisco line from Smucker

Shortening, cooking oil brand goes to B+G Foods

The U.S. company behind the Crisco brand of cooking oils and shortenings is selling that product line to the maker of Cream of Wheat cereal and Green Giant vegetables. New Jersey-based B+G Foods announced Monday it will buy the Crisco product lines from Ohio-based J.M. Smucker for about US$550 million (C$725.1 million). The sale includes […] Read more


(CPR.ca)

Big Two railways release plans for winter

Snow-clearing equipment among investments at CN, CP

Canada’s major railways have filed their winter contingency plans, as they are now required by law to do. Since updates to the Canada Transportation Act in 2018, Canada’s major rail companies have been required to publish winter plans and can be forced to pay up if they fail to deliver on certain promises of railcars. […] Read more

(Alfio Manciagli/iStock/Getty Images)

Record-high Canadian canola supplies in commercial pipeline

MarketsFarm — Visible canola supplies in the Canadian commercial pipeline are sitting at historically high levels, according to Canadian Grain Commission data. A total of 1.75 million tonnes of canola were sitting in commercial hands across Canada during the week ended Oct. 18 — only slightly off the record of 1.786 million tonnes set only […] Read more