Western Canadian yearling prices experienced a week-over-week decline of $5-$8 with some pockets deteriorating $10 to as much as $12. Adverse weather in southern Alberta has resulted in limited buying interest from main feedlot operators. Feedlot Alley has received 150-200 per cent of normal precipitation over the past 60 days. Snow and rain, along with […] Read more
Klassen: Feedlots struggle through adverse weather
Wheat and barley groups merge management
The two organizations will have their own boards but are slimming down their administration costs
Reading Time: 2 minutes The trial went well, so the boards of Alberta Barley and the Alberta Wheat Commission have decided to permanently merge the management ranks of the organizations. “The ultimate goal of this exercise is to provide more value to you as producers,” Tom Steve told attendees at Alberta Wheat’s AGM at FarmTech. “We will continue to […] Read more
Trying to grow malt barley can make you cry in your beer
There’s way more money in malt than feed, but just 20 per cent of growers capture 80 per cent of malt sales
Reading Time: 4 minutes Kevin Sich thinks malt barley could give canola a run for its money any day of the week — even if market share doesn’t reflect that. “Malt barley is probably one of your most profitable crops. Return on investment is probably very strong,” said Sich, Rahr Malting’s grain department manager. “But if malt barley is […] Read more
Pork exports key in 2018 as U.S. slaughter ramps up
CNS Canada –– Canadian pork producers should see higher returns for their product in the spring of 2018, but whether those prices last may determine how successful Canada is at tapping new markets. According to U.S. Department of Agriculture supply estimates, weekly U.S. hog slaughter numbers over the past two months have averaged 2.369 million […] Read more
Malting barley production down, quality up
Western Canada’s barley acres continue to fall, but malting barley quality was excellent
Reading Time: < 1 minute There was less malt barley produced this year but what did come off looked good, according to the Canadian Grain Commission. The organization’s 2017 Quality of Western Canadian Malting Barley report noted lower production, less acres, and a yield decrease, but high kernel weights and plumpness across the Prairies. Alberta and northeastern B.C. (the two […] Read more
Jason Lenz continues as Alberta Barley chair
Reading Time: < 1 minute Alberta Barley’s board of directors has re-elected Jason Lenz as chair and Dave Bishop as vice-chair. Lenz has been with Alberta Barley since becoming a delegate in 2009 and farms 2,500 acres of canola, wheat, barley, and fababeans near Bentley and also has a small cow-calf herd. Bishop, who farms near Barons, has been a […] Read more
Alberta malt barley quality looking good
CNS Canada — Despite a wet spring and problems with dryness in the summer, barley in central Alberta is looking fairly good, according to a grower in the Red Deer area. “We had a really good malt crop this year, the quality is excellent,” said Matt Hamill of Red Shed Malting at Red Deer. “It […] Read more
New technology poised to give barley a boost
Researchers aim to breed barley tailored to very specific needs
Reading Time: 5 minutes There’s a bright future for boring old barley. Aside from malt, barley doesn’t generate a lot of excitement for Prairie grain growers — something you can see in acreage figures (which have fallen by more than a third in Alberta and by nearly half in Western Canada during the past decade). But new technology is […] Read more
Now is the time to create next year’s battle plan for fusarium
Scouting this year is the first step in limiting the impact of the cereal disease next year
Reading Time: 2 minutes Although it’s likely too late to apply a fungicide for fusarium graminearum, producers can still use the information they gather about the outbreak to plan for subsequent growing seasons. Fusarium graminearum is considered the most important fusarium head blight (FHB) species due to its aggressiveness and production of deoxynivalenol or DON (a.k.a. vomitoxin), said crop […] Read more
Heat LQ cleared for pre-harvest use in wheat, barley
Wheat, durum and barley growers have a new pre-harvest herbicide option now that BASF has received Codex maximum residue limits (MRLs) for its product Heat LQ. While “there were probably some wheat acres already harvested,” according to Dan Packer, BASF’s cereals crop manager, this agreement will provide an additional pre-harvest option for farmers who still […] Read more
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