Rural economic development has been given a promotion at the federal level in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s latest cabinet shuffle. In the shuffle, following the departure of Treasury Board president Scott Brison from cabinet, Trudeau on Monday called up Bernadette Jordan, MP for the southern Nova Scotia riding of South Shore-St.Margaret’s, to head a newly […] Read more
Rural development strategy sought in federal shuffle
U.S. livestock: Live cattle hit contract highs on storm forecast
Chicago | Reuters — Live cattle futures rose to life-of-contract highs at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange on Tuesday, lifted by worries that severe winter weather could prompt beef packers to pay higher prices for animals in the U.S. Plains, traders said. Technical buying and short-covering also buoyed cattle prices while lean hog futures finished narrowly […] Read more
U.S. livestock: Hog futures drop in technical sell-off
Chicago | Reuters — U.S. lean hog futures fell for the second straight session on Monday, sliding to a one-week low on pressure from technical selling and a lack of bullish information to propel gains, traders and analysts said. Feeder cattle futures also eased to the lowest since Jan. 7, while more actively traded live […] Read more
U.S. shutdown sends grain traders, farmers hunting for data
Chicago | Reuters — When the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced a slew of key farm reports would not be released on Friday due to the partial government shutdown, the phones at crop forecaster Gro Intelligence blew up. The USDA was set to release its views on the projected size of U.S. soybean stockpiles, among […] Read more
Bolsonaro gives Brazil farm ministry powers on indigenous land
Rio de Janeiro/Brasilia | Reuters — New Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro issued an executive order on Wednesday making the agriculture ministry responsible for deciding on lands claimed by indigenous peoples, in a victory for agribusiness that will likely enrage environmentalists. The temporary decree, which will expire unless it is ratified within 120 days by Congress, […] Read more
El Nino likely not responsible for warm, dry conditions
CNS Canada — The above-normal temperatures Western Canada has generally experienced since the fall weren’t necessarily caused by an El Nino. Rather, to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the phenomenon that’s likely affected the weather was a ‘blob’ that formed off of the coast of British Columbia. “It’s a big warm pocket of ocean water and […] Read more
Early winter weather puts U.S. safe-haven corn planting in doubt
Chicago | Reuters — Illinois farmer Brent Johnson had planned to bump up his corn acreage by 10 per cent in 2019 and plant fewer soybeans as a way to shelter himself from the lower soy prices caused by U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff war with China. But some early winter storms caused him to […] Read more
How Ontario’s new DON testing cost-share program works
With vomitoxin (DON) levels so prevalent in this year’s corn crop, the Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association (OSCIA) says a new DON testing cost-sharing initiative will help producers strategically market their grain. Why it matters: OSCIA says cost-sharing will help farmers know how severe their deoxynivalenol (DON) issues are, and how to market their […] Read more
U.S. forecaster sees 90 per cent chance of El Nino in winter
Reuters — There is a 90 per cent chance of the El Nino weather pattern emerging during the Northern Hemisphere winter of 2018-19, a U.S. government weather forecaster said on Thursday. “The official forecast favours the formation of a weak El Nino,” the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center (CPC) said in a monthly forecast. […] Read more
Fall rye’s popularity catching on Prairies
CNS Canada — It’s good and bad news when it comes to winter cereal acreage in Western Canada. Winter wheat acres in Manitoba and Saskatchewan are down this fall, while acreage in Alberta increased, and fall rye acres in all provinces rose. “I think a lot of the guys that were growing winter wheat have […] Read more