(Photo courtesy Canada Beef Inc.)

Klassen: Feeder market stabilizes after December surge

Compared to last week, western Canadian feeder cattle prices traded $3-$4 on either side of unchanged. Small groups of various quality characterized sale volumes. There were a few packages of backgrounded yearlings that sold at decent levels. Finishing feedlots were fairly aggressive on groups in the 700- to 800-lb. category. Higher flesh levels have become […] Read more


(Photo courtesy Canada Beef Inc.)

Feed weekly outlook: Bids high, but limited supplies mean little moving

MarketsFarm — Feed grain prices in Western Canada remain at very high levels heading into the New Year, but little is actually trading as feedlots fill up with cheaper corn from the U.S. “The volume trading of Canadian feed grains has dropped significantly,” said Jim Beusekom, of Market Place Commodities at Lethbridge, noting about 80 […] Read more

A wheat crop in 2018. Spring wheat production fell in 2021, but not nearly as much as in other difficult growing years.

2021 was a bad crop year, but not 2002 bad

Reading Time: < 1 minute It was the worst year in a generation but production in Alberta was still considerably better than 2002. For example, spring wheat production this year fell to 5.71 million tonnes (according to the latest StatCan estimates). But that’s more than double the 2.59 million tonnes in 2002. On a per-seeded-acre basis, it was 35.9 bushels per […] Read more


(Photo courtesy Canada Beef Inc.)

Feed weekly outlook: Wheat, barley supplies tighten, replaced by corn

MarketsFarm — The further tightening of wheat and barley feed supplies is prompting feedlots to purchase more corn from the U.S., according to an Alberta-based analyst. “We’re nine months away, or almost 10 months away from more inventory coming in. There’s not much there for wheat and barley,” said Mike Fleischhauer of Eagle Commodities at […] Read more

(Dave Bedard photo)

Canola declines, durum drops in new StatsCan estimates

Soybean, oats estimates raised

MarketsFarm — There were very few surprises in Statistics Canada’s latest principal field crop production estimates released Friday — the first in 2021-22 to use a survey of producers. Nevertheless, they quantified just how severe last summer’s drought was in Western Canada. Canola production for the 2021-22 marketing year was estimated to be 12.595 million […] Read more


(Dave Bedard photo)

Smaller crops likely in StatsCan survey-based report

MarketsFarm — Mindful of the summer drought conditions that seriously cut into crop production across the Prairies, average trade estimates call for downward revisions to Statistics Canada’s already-small forecasts for most crops when the it releases its first survey-based estimates of the marketing year on Friday. While prior reports, in September and August, were compiled […] Read more

Amalgamation has been on the agenda of regional meetings of Alberta Wheat and Barley this month, including the Region 3 meeting in Red Deer on Nov. 17.

Vote nears on long-discussed merger of cereal groups

Feedback has been positive but how checkoff dollars would be spent after a union is an issue

Reading Time: 3 minutes A proposed merger between Alberta Wheat and Alberta Barley isn’t a done deal yet — but the process is gathering steam with producer voting just weeks away. “We’ve had pretty resounding positive feedback to continue moving forward with this process, but we’re still looking for feedback from producers,” said Todd Hames, chair of Alberta Wheat. […] Read more