Archives for October 2010

There’s increasing anguish over grading standards. The Canadian Grain Commission always says that it tries to apply all the grading standards equally from one year to the next, but a lot of the grading factors are open to human interpretation. Beyond the official standards, buyers are often able to blend grain to come up with …

The just released Pulse Market Report from Saskatchewan Pulse Growers has a couple of very different opinions on whether producers should be holding lentils for higher prices or selling them before prices go down. Mark Tycholiz from the special crops brokerage company TradeMark Grain does not believe lentils prices are going to weaken. He points …

The National Farmers Union has generated a lot of attention by its efforts to block a comprehensive trade deal between Canada and the European Union. The NFU claims to have received a secret draft of the text and they say the deal would be bad news for Canadian agriculture. Perhaps the revelation raising the most …

What do you consider big when it comes to a grain operation? What about cattle? What’s a big cow-calf operation? Consider a grain farm that grows 30 bushels per acre of wheat with the wheat worth $5.50 a bushel. It takes about 1,500 acres to have a gross return of $250,000. On canola, assuming a …

With the fall calf run underway, cow-calf producers are rejoicing over the dramatic improvement in prices. However, there is still very little profit. The Western Beef Development Centre has been doing an extensive cost of production analysis with producers and they’ve just published the 2008 results. A total of 18 Saskatchewan herds were used for …

It would be interesting to see a study on this, but I’d bet that farmers in Western Canada have a much bigger investment in grain storage than producers in almost any other country. Despite all the capacity and continued sales of new bins, anytime there’s a decent crop in a region, storage remains a problem …

The potential takeover of Potash Corp is a huge political issue. One aspect of that debate involves Canpotex, the marketing arm for all three of the Saskatchewan potash companies – Potash Corp, Agrium and Mosaic. BHP Billiton has suggested that if it is successful in the takeover of  Potash Corp, it would favour marketing on …

The Canola Council has sent out a Canola Watch report on grading factors. No. 1 canola may contain up to 2 per cent distinctly green seeds and a maximum of 5 per cent damaged seed, including green. The allowable limit for No. 2 is 6 per cent distinctly green and 12 per cent total damage. …

It has been well publicized that Saskatchewan has taken over the administration of the AgriStability program for producers in the province. The AgriStability office is based out of Melville along with the head office for Saskatchewan Crop Insurance. The reports I’ve heard indicate that the staff is far more responsive and knowledgeable than when the …

Canadian beef is subject to country of origin labeling laws in the U.S. However, people who have shopped in American supermarkets often say that they don’t see beef that’s labeled as Canadian. One of the reasons is that much of the Canadian beef goes into the service industry – hotels and restaurants where it doesn’t …

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada has just released market outlooks for grains and oilseeds as well as pulse and special crops. A lot of the production and export projections are dramatic departures from the norm. Here’s a sampling. Canadian durum production is estimated to be down 44 per cent from last year, the lowest since the …

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has announced that it is raising to 15 per cent the amount of corn ethanol that can be blended into gasoline. The EPA decision is being criticized for not going far enough and for going too far. The Renewable Fuels Association is upset that that the Ethanol 15 decision is …