COVID-19 means harvest will be ‘especially challenging’

COVID-19 means harvest will be ‘especially challenging’

You need all hands on deck, but what if someone shows symptoms of a cold or flu?

Reading Time: 4 minutes This year’s harvest is not going to be a normal one — and farmers and their families need to make adjustments accordingly, says the executive director of AgSafe Alberta. “It’s a significant challenge on farms because we’re looking at a cropping season that could last from now until November, so we have to manage people […] Read more


(File photo)

Feed weekly outlook: Prices gain strength

MarketsFarm — Harvest activity in the western Canadian Prairies had depressed feed grain prices at the end of August, but prices have recovered slightly. “There’s been a bit of a break in harvest activity,” Allen Pirness of Market Place Commodities in Lethbridge said. Producers in southern Alberta had been harvesting barley at the end of […] Read more

CBOT December 2020 corn with 20-, 50- and 100-day moving averages. (Barchart)

CBOT weekly outlook: Seasonal harvest pressure weighs on soy, corn

MarketsFarm — Market activity on the Chicago Board of Trade has been characteristic for September, with harvest activity keeping pressure on values. “The trend for September turns to the downside as harvest starts to pick up,” said Steve Georgy of Barrington Commodities at Barrington, Ill. However, next week’s world agriculture supply and demand estimates (WASDE) […] Read more



A corn crop west of Grunthal, Man. on Aug. 17, 2019. (Dave Bedard photo)

StatsCan predicts more corn, less soy in 2020 harvest

Fewer acres but higher yields predicted

Statistics Canada’s latest round of expectations for the 2020 harvest calls for more corn and less soy than in 2019, with higher yields offsetting lower planted acres for both crops. In its Production of principal field crops report, using information from July — based on models created using satellite technology — StatsCan on Monday called […] Read more


tractor on highway

This harvest, take a bit of time to do things differently

Instead of the usual go-go-go approach, think about how we can all learn to use time more wisely

Reading Time: 3 minutes I watched in horror a video on social media in which a farmer wrapped his preteen son in bale wrap. The child was in the machine! Later that week I coaxed an elderly man holding his electric saw down off a 25-foot extension ladder. At a lavender farm, I encouraged the owner to stop giving […] Read more

A barley crop south of Ethelton, Sask. on July 30, 2019. (Dave Bedard photo)

Feed weekly outlook: Grain prices soften into fall

MarketsFarm — Old-crop feed grain prices are converging with new-crop and coming under some seasonal pressure. “As we get closer to new crop, we’ve been seeing the switch to new-crop prices from old-crop,” said Erin Harakal, a senior trader with Agfinity in Lethbridge. Feed barley prices are around $195-$200 per tonne delivered in the Lethbridge […] Read more