Wheat seeds spilling from hand, close-up

Get the grade and make more money when marketing your grain

The Canadian Grain Commission will grade samples 
for free — with even the postage paid for

Reading Time: 2 minutes Know exactly what’s in your bins before selling your grain. “One of the things that we can’t emphasize strongly enough is that farmers really should be getting good independent third-party samples of their grain,” said Jonathon Driedger, senior market analyst with FarmLink. “Then you know exactly what you have. You have a sample sheet that […] Read more

(Dave Bedard photo)

Cargill posts net profit on special gains; revenue down

Reuters — Global commodity trader Cargill on Wednesday said it turned in a quarterly net profit, boosted by special gains that offset poor results from trading and oilseed processing. Revenue for the privately held company declined for the eighth straight quarter. Minnesota-based Cargill reported net income of $15 million for the fourth quarter ended May […] Read more


(Scott Bauer photo courtesy ARS/USDA)

Lower feed costs weigh on supply-managed goods

CNS Canada –– Relatively soft feed grain prices over the past year mean producers of supply-managed commodities, such as milk and eggs, have also received lower prices for their products. Such is the interpretation of industry participants accounting for declines in the latest Farm Price Index data released by Statistics Canada. The livestock and animal […] Read more

What does your grain sell for at port?

What does your grain sell for at port?

When grain gridlock hit two years ago, the gap between the elevator and port price appears to have skyrocketed — and cost farmers billions

Reading Time: 4 minutes The jury’s still out on whether knowing the price of export grain relative to local cash prices will help producers get better prices. But the Alberta Wheat Commission intends to find out. “The port price would provide an indication of whether the system is constrained or functioning efficiently,” said Tom Steve, the commission’s general manager. […] Read more


farm fields

The sizzling market for farmland may be ready to take a breather

Alberta land prices are still heading up, but double-digit 
annual rises appear to be over for now

Reading Time: 3 minutes The red-hot market for farmland is showing signs of cooling off. “The more recent sales are still showing some increase, but the increases aren’t what they have been previously,” said Dave Weber, an appraiser with Serecon, an agricultural consulting company. Alberta farmland values were increasing about one per cent a month during 2011 and 2012, […] Read more

Website to shine a light on grain prices

Website to shine a light on grain prices

Data updated on a daily basis for eight zones across the Prairies

Reading Time: 3 minutes Don’t know if your local elevator is offering a good price or not? There’s an app for that. Or at least there will be once www.pdqinfo.ca is fully up and running. The new website, created by the Alberta Wheat Commission with $743,000 in federal funding, aims to give farmers timely and accurate pricing data for […] Read more


Chuck Penner

Market outlook: Not great, but not horrible either

Four to Watch: Market analyst Chuck Penner figures wheat has upside potential, but a soybean mountain casts a long shadow on oilseeds

Reading Time: 2 minutes Chill out and don’t get too down about the drop in grain and oilseeds prices. That’s the advice of Chuck Penner, owner of Left Field Consulting Services in Winnipeg. First, markets not only swing from lows to highs and back again, but tend to get stuck when they fall into a trough, he said. “When […] Read more

(Dave Bedard photo)

Cargill profit surges as lower grain prices spur demand

Reuters — Replenished grain supplies following a bumper North American harvest bolstered global commodities trader Cargill’s bottom line in its latest quarter as lower prices lifted demand for crops and padded margins on meat sales. Privately-held Cargill, based in Minnesota, reported net earnings of $784 million for the second quarter ended Nov. 30, up 41 […] Read more


wheat heads

Manitoba farm group calls for mandatory price reporting

Keystone Agricultural Producers asks government to follow the lead 
of the USDA and require companies to report sales information

Reading Time: 2 minutes Farmers are finding the promise of marketing freedom rings hollow in the absence of enough price information to make informed decisions. That’s prompted Keystone Agricultural Producers, Manitoba’s main farm group, to call on the federal and provincial governments to implement mandatory price reporting on agricultural commodities, similar to what exists in the U.S. “We’ve been […] Read more