MarketsFarm — The last vessel of the 2020-21 shipping season left the Port of Thunder Bay on Tuesday, wrapping up the busiest year at the port since 1997. Annual cargo volumes through came in at 10.2 million tonnes, which marked the first time the tonnage topped 10 million since 1997. A total of 9.3 million […] Read more
Port of Thunder Bay wraps up 21st-century-best year
A fertilizer revolution is on the horizon
IBM says it will produce a breakthrough within five years that will greatly lower the energy needed to make nitrogen fertilizer
Reading Time: 5 minutes As fledgling technology goes, quantum computing sounds as science fiction as it gets. Most people have likely not even heard about it, let alone think it can be used for anything immediately useful. But if IBM fulfills a very bold promise it made in September, crop producers will see the fruits of this technology in […] Read more
Fertilizer use increasing rapidly in Western Canada
Reading Time: < 1 minute Rising Prairie grain production has seen steady increase in the use of nitrogen, phosphate and potash over the past 10 years, says provincial market analyst Ryan Furtas. Nitrogen use in Western Canada has gone from 1.66 million tonnes a decade ago to 2.28 million tonnes in the 2019-20 crop year — an annual increase of […] Read more
Bibeau promises help to farmers on rising carbon tax
Funds expected to help farmers cut emissions
A steadily rising carbon tax has a lot of Western Canada’s grain farmers wondering how they’ll compete in world markets against competitors not subjected to a similar tax. “I think the world market is also looking towards a greener economy and always more sustainable agriculture,” federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said when the question was […] Read more
Get more bang for your fertilizer buck by focusing on rates
It’s not easy to determine the optimum rate, but start with post-harvest soil testing, says soil scientist
Reading Time: 4 minutes A bumper crop of canola or wheat is bound to put a smile on your face. But writing a cheque for replacing all the nitrogen used by that crop? Not so much. And those cheques are only going to get bigger if the trend for N use continues on the same track it’s been on […] Read more
New greening programs planned for ag alongside carbon tax hike
Carbon price to hit $170 per tonne by 2030
A new federal climate plan which further cranks up taxes on carbon emissions also includes pledges of new programs to help sink more carbon into farmland. The government on Friday released the sequel to its 2016 Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change — a “strengthened” climate plan, titled A Healthy Environment and a […] Read more
Expansion underway on Brandon fertilizer terminal
More storage to be added at three-year-old facility
Federated Co-operatives (FCL) has started expansion work at its next-to-new fertilizer terminal in western Manitoba, to boost its capacity by almost a third. FCL announced Monday it has budgeted $5 million to add 9,000 tonnes of capacity at the Co-op Fertilizer Terminal at Brandon, bringing its maximum storage to 36,500 tonnes. Work began at the […] Read more
U.S. puts duties on phosphate from Morocco, Russia
Reuters — The U.S. Department of Commerce said Tuesday it would set preliminary duties on phosphate fertilizer imports from Russia and Morocco, after launching an investigation to determine if producers in these countries were receiving unfair subsidies. The department set preliminary duties of 23.46 per cent on imports from Morocco’s OCP Group and other producers […] Read more
Fall fertilizer prices offer more good news for Prairie growers
Prices for urea, phosphate and anhydrous ammonia are all at the lower end of their normal range
Prices for urea, phosphate and anhydrous ammonia are all at the lower end of their normal range
Reading Time: 4 minutes Fertilizer prices have seen some ups and downs over the past six months, but the situation heading into winter looks favourable. “When we look at the overall input markets so far in 2020, we see that they’ve kind of eased up. For producers right now, that’s a pretty good spot to be in,” said Craig […] Read more
ADM, InnovaFeed to build world’s biggest insect protein plant in Illinois
Chicago | Reuters — U.S. grain trader and processor Archer Daniels Midland and French biotech company InnovaFeed announced plans on Thursday to build the world’s largest insect protein plant at Decatur, Illinois. The announcement comes amid rising global feed grain prices and tightening supplies, and as more companies work toward reducing the carbon footprint of […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
