Reading Time: 2 minutes It was evident from the hello that the South Dakota rancher had practised his pitch before he dialed my office. “I’m (so and so),” he said in a clipped, clear voice, “an independent cow-calf producer west of the (Missouri) river with 500 cows. I’m calling with one question: Where do I go to sign up […] Read more
U.S. ranchers ask, ‘Where’s my cow insurance?’
Canadian Grain Commission user fees — a closer look
Planned changes to inspection and other fees represent an added cost of $2,750 over a 5,000-acre farm
Reading Time: 3 minutes The Canada Grain Act was enacted in 1912. The last set of significant amendments was made in the early 1970s. Since then, there have been vast changes in farm operations, grain handling, marketing, exporting and the global marketplace. The time is exactly right to modernize the Canada Grain Act. The federal government passed Bill C-45, […] Read moreBear trap catches the shorts in soybeans looking the wrong way
Without news to explain the sudden turn, shorts may at first misjudge the turn as being merely a rally
Reading Time: 3 minutes Soybean prices have continued to trade in a sideways to slightly higher trading range since November 2012. Support is down at $14 and resistance up at $15.30. This $1.30 trading range is indicative of a market in equilibrium for the past seven months, with few buyers willing to pay more than $15.30 and most sellers […] Read moreTemporary worker program has worked well for agriculture
Reading Time: 3 minutes The recent federal government announcement that it would be making some changes to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) has caused some anxiety in the intensive agriculture sectors in Alberta. It would seem that whenever a government program is working well and there is an announcement of changes, one senses that they may not help […] Read more
Cheese decision helps supply management
Reading Time: 2 minutes A recent decision by the Canadian Dairy Commission (CDC) to create a new classification for mozzarella cheese might open the way to further loosen iron-clad tariffs against speciality cheese imports. The CDC decision creates a new class and price structure for mozzarella used by pizza makers. The idea is that this will see lower prices […] Read more
Canola was a “calculated” risk
Reading Time: 2 minutes It was about three dozen years ago that my friends and colleagues at the then Rapeseed Association of Canada invited me over to discuss the specifications and definition for a new crop. When I arrived, Al Earl, the executive director of the association, told me that the board had decided to name the new double-zero-type […] Read more
Smallholder farmers —a powerful engine for growth
A UN organization’s approach is about making small farms commercial and attractive enough that young people are drawn back to the land
Reading Time: 3 minutes Researchers have discovered an environmentally sustainable instrument that could increase world food production by 30 per cent, but they’ve been having a tough time getting it commercialized. Is it a plant with a novel trait, or a new herbicide perhaps, bogged down by excessive regulations or those silly activists? Or maybe it’s a new type […] Read moreWashington dreaming in technicolor in cellulosic-biofuel forecasts
Every year the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency forecasts millions of gallons of cellulosic biofuel will be produced, but so far production has been virtually non-existent
Reading Time: 2 minutes The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has consistently overestimated the prospects for production of advanced biofuels from non-food crops, adding to the impression its biofuel policy is out of step with reality. By law, fuel producers must blend a certain portion of biofuels with gasoline. Some of it must be “advanced” (ethanol is classed as non-advanced) […] Read moreA spring of anxiety for crop and livestock producers
Reading Time: 4 minutes At press time one could sense an increase in the anxiety level of crop producers. The reason being that spring has yet to arrive anywhere in the province. It’s of particular concern in southern Alberta, the home of many speciality crops that need to be seeded early into a warming soil. Growers of sugar beets, […] Read more
Price bubbles and commodity markets
Reading Time: 2 minutes Athoughtful new paper from researchers at the University of Illinois marks a significant step forward in research on how commodity futures prices are formed. Until recently, the academic and policy debate about futures price formation has been locked in an acrimonious and polarized standoff between market fundamentalists, who insist all price moves reflect supply-and-demand fundamentals, […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
