Chicago | Reuters – The world’s four largest agribusinesses are working together to standardize and digitize international grain trades using technologies such as blockchain and artificial intelligence, the companies announced on Thursday. Archer Daniels Midland Co, Bunge Ltd, Cargill Inc and Louis Dreyfus Co, known collectively as the ABCDs of global grain trading, said the […] Read more
ABCD quartet of grain traders partner to digitize global trades
U.S. pot firm Curaleaf to triple planned equity offering
Toronto | Reuters – U.S. cannabis retailer Curaleaf Holdings Inc is raising about $400 million, almost three times its original target, in Toronto, in a deal that would value the company at close to $4 billion, people familiar with the situation told Reuters. The move by the Wakefield, Massachusetts-based company, which also owns cannabis cultivation […] Read more
Foreign control in Canadian ag sector still relatively low
CNS Canada – The percentage of foreign control, as a percentage of total assets, in the Canadian agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting sector was 1.6 per cent in 2016, according to data recently released by Statistics Canada. While that’s up from 1.1 per cent in 2012, it compares with foreign control in all industries (excluding […] Read more
DowDuPont sees higher raw material costs, shares fall
Reuters – DowDuPont Inc said it expects higher raw material costs to hit all its units for the rest of the year even as an uptick in its agriculture business helped the U.S. chemicals producer beat Street estimates for the fourth straight quarter. Shares of the company fell 3 percent to $66.11 in morning trade and […] Read more
Bunge posts surprise loss on trade-related soy hedges
Chicago | Reuters – Global grains merchant Bunge Ltd reported a surprise quarterly loss on Wednesday as its agribusiness unit took a $125 million hit from soybean hedges tied to the trade dispute between the United States and China. Shares of the White Plains, New York-based company fell 2.9 percent in early trading to $67.10 […] Read more
ADM earnings double, helped by U.S.-China trade row
Chicago | Reuters – Archer Daniels Midland Co’s net profits doubled in the second quarter and beat Wall Street estimates, after a drought in Argentina and the U.S.-China trade spat boosted the U.S. grain merchant’s trading and oilseed processing businesses. Shares were up 1 percent at $47.86 after touching a three-year high on the New […] Read more
Wake up and smell the micro-roasted coffee
Alberta village is on the cutting edge of the ‘third wave’ coffee movement thanks to Profound Coffee
Reading Time: 4 minutes Teri Heck is on a mission to rid the world of bad coffee. “I grew up on the farm where we had terrible water and even worse coffee,” said the owner of Profound Coffee, a micro-roaster in Cremona. “Life is just too short to drink bad coffee.” Heck was always a double-double girl in the […] Read more
New cropping business tools available
Reading Time: < 1 minute The 2018 versions of Cropping Alternatives and the new Crop Budget Calculator tool are now available. They allow producers to project costs, margins, and break-even yields for potential crops. Cropping Alternatives “forecasts margins based on benchmark yields, current cost of production, expected revenues, and costs by soil zone. With this information producers can get an […] Read more
What was the real bottom line on your farm in 2017?
Cash accounting can save you taxes, but it doesn’t give you a true picture of profitability
Reading Time: 2 minutes Was your farm profitable in 2017? Now is the time to find out by converting cash statements to accrual income and expenses statements, says a provincial farm financial specialist. “The majority of farms still report their incomes and expenses on a cash basis via their annual income tax returns with the goal of avoiding or […] Read more
Online tools for reducing worker turnover
Calculator estimates costs of replacing employees while benchmarking tool allows for comparisons by sector or province
Reading Time: < 1 minute Did you know that the cost of replacing a single worker can be as much as 150 per cent of their annual salary? Do you know what your turnover costs are? ‘Turnover’ is the rate at which workers leave and are replaced on your farm, something that can have a major impact on productivity and […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
