Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Board of Trade soybean futures dipped on Tuesday, pressured by a fast pace of planting and slowing export deals to China after a string of sales earlier in the month, traders said. “The trade is very dependent on China buying, and we really have not seen an announcement here in […] Read more

U.S. grains: Soy slips as traders await China deals
CBOT corn, wheat futures rise

U.S. grains: Corn, soybeans drift lower on favourable crop prospects
CBOT July wheat up on short-covering
Chicago | Reuters — U.S. corn and soybean futures drifted lower on Thursday as generally favourable U.S. Midwest crop weather bolstered expectations for large harvests, analysts said. “We just don’t have enough demand … to overcome the good growing conditions that are seen across the Midwest,” said Brian Hoops, president of Midwest Market Solutions. So […] Read more

ICE weekly outlook: Canola steady at midweek
Spring seeding more or less underway
MarketsFarm — After showing considerable strength in prior trading sessions, canola contracts were either side of unchanged at midweek. David Derwin of P.I. Financial in Winnipeg said canola was holding steady in comparison to other vegetable oils. “There’s general weakness in other markets, but canola hasn’t had too much of a move,” he said. Considerable […] Read more

Trade estimates vary ahead of StatsCan’s acreage report
MarketsFarm — Opinions are wide-ranging on what Canadian farmers plan to plant in 2020, ahead of Statistics Canada’s first round of acreage estimates, due out Thursday. Prior to lockdown measures put in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic, StatsCan was scheduled to release its first principal field crops area report for 2020 on April 24. […] Read more

U.S. grains: Soybeans tumble as China spat piles on demand worries
Grain markets hit by drop in demand for feed, biofuel
Chicago | Reuters — Chicago soybean and corn futures slid on Monday as rising tensions between Washington and Beijing raised concern about further demand risk, on top of coronavirus disruptions to biofuel and livestock feed markets. Favourable crop weather also weighed on prices as planting advanced in the U.S. Midwest while rain across Europe looks […] Read more

U.S. grains: Soybeans slide on renewed trade tensions with China
Corn, wheat also fall on heightened trade tensions
Chicago | Reuters — U.S. soybean futures declined on Friday as renewed concern about trade tensions between the United States and China overshadowed fresh export sales to the world’s largest soybean consumer. Corn and wheat futures also fell on uncertain feed demand and good weather across much of the U.S. Midwest that signaled another strong […] Read more

Pulse weekly outlook: Chickpea acreage expected lower
MarketsFarm — High global prices in the 2017-18 marketing year caused a global spike in chickpea production in 2018. It’s since taken a while for consumers to “chew through supplies,” which has put pressure on prices, according to Chuck Penner of LeftField Commodities. In a kabuli chickpea global outlook webinar hosted by the Global Pulse […] Read more

Precision planting produces results — but doesn’t come cheap
Small-plot study finds 15 per cent yield bump, but cost and fertilization are issues with precision planter
Reading Time: 5 minutes New research shows that tightening up row spacing when seeding canola with precision planters can make a big yield difference — up to 15 per cent more, in fact — compared to conventional air drills. That’s a key finding from a four-year small-plot study by Farming Smarter researchers after adjusting a precision vacuum planter to […] Read more

Burnett on Markets: Weather woes span the Prairies
The weather during the last half of March provided some optimism about a normal start to spring. Farmers across the Prairies were preparing equipment, taking delivery of seed and fertilizer and looking forward to getting out into the field. Then the weather in early April dropped significant amounts of rain and snow across northern and […] Read more

Canadian, U.S. farms face crop losses on foreign worker delays
Winnipeg/Chicago | Reuters — Mandatory coronavirus quarantines of seasonal foreign workers in Canada could hurt that country’s fruit and vegetable output this year, and travel problems related to the pandemic could also leave U.S. farmers with fewer workers than usual. Foreign labour is critical to farm production in both countries, where domestic workers shun the […] Read more