Photo: File/Greg Berg

Prairie oats market stable, but strong

Oats bids in Western Canada have stabilized for the time being, as the weather concerns that propped up the market at the beginning of the month are largely factored in. “It’s a pretty stable market. Stable, but strong,” said Scott Shiels, of Grain Millers Inc. in Yorkton, Sask. Prices moved up at the beginning of […] Read more


Paterson Grain’s current elevator at Rosser, Man., is the largest in its Prairie primary grain handling network at 121,000 tonnes capacity. (Dave Bedard file photo)

Paterson stakes Manitoba site for oat processing plant

Up to a quarter million tonnes of oats per year could find a new end use as a Winnipeg agrifood company sets up a new oat processing plant near its home base. Privately-held Paterson GlobalFoods (PGF) announced Thursday it will start construction “immediately” on the new plant, on part of its 600-acre site next to […] Read more

Barry Senft, shown here at the Ottawa Valley Farm Show in a 2017 GFO video, is stepping down in April as the organization’s chief executive. (GFO video screengrab via YouTube)

Grain Farmers of Ontario seeking new CEO

Ontario’s biggest ag commodity organization is on the hunt for a new CEO as its first chief prepares to exit. Barry Senft announced Tuesday he will step down as CEO of Grain Farmers of Ontario in April 2020, a post he’s held since the 2009 merger of the province’s corn, soy and wheat grower groups […] Read more



(Doug Wilson photo courtesy ARS/USDA)

Large oat production won’t move prices

MarketsFarm — While the most recent crop production report from Statistics Canada predicted significantly more oats than originally expected, prices will likely remain stable. Statistics Canada estimated 3.952 million tonnes of oats will be grown in 2019, up considerably from the 3.436 million tonnes produced in 2018. But low carryover stocks from previous years means […] Read more


(Sundown001/iStock/Getty Images)

Oats market steady, watching harvest

MarketsFarm — Western Canada’s oats market is stable at prices a bit better than a year ago, as harvest gets underway and participants wait to see how much will move off the combine to the market. Early yield reports range anywhere from 80 to 140 bushels per acre, said Tyler Palmer, grain buyer with Emerson […] Read more

Maynard Kolskog has made some remarkable tasting oat-based cheeses. Pictured here are a smoky cheese and a blue cheese.

Reporter plays foodie and samples oat-based cheeses

“The more I work with Alberta crops, the more I get excited about them,” says local culinary arts instructor

Reading Time: 3 minutes It’s not every day that I go into a laboratory to try food. But today, I walk into a room with steel containers and refrigerators, where researchers are wearing lab coats. I’m about to taste some new oat ‘cheese,’ and I’m excited. Before I get to taste the oat cheese, research chef, Maynard Kolskog has […] Read more


(Dave Bedard photo)

StatsCan: Less canola and durum, more barley and oats

MarketsFarm — Canadian farmers seeded fewer canola and durum acres than they originally intended, but more barley and oats, according to updated acreage estimates from Statistics Canada that largely came within expectations. StatsCan pegged planted Canadian canola area for 2019-20 (August to July) at 20.952 million acres, down by about 300,000 from the March survey […] Read more