Hursh Comment

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada has come out with its latest market forecast for grains, oilseeds and specialty crops. The forecast includes an estimate of this year’s seeded acreage and their numbers generally look quite plausible, assuming there isn’t a major acreage that has to go unseeded. The biggest acreage drop is forecast on lentils, down …

Statistics Canada has released a pile of data and estimates related to agriculture. Not surprisingly, the stats show that large farms are accounting for an increasing share of production. In 2008, 65 per cent of farms were in the small category with gross revenues of less than $100,000 a year. Fifteen percent of farms were …

NDP Leader Dwain Lingenfelter is criticizing the Sask Party government for the big increase in Crop Insurance premiums. Link is either trying to score cheap political points or he’s not very well informed on how Crop Insurance works. On the surface, a 21 per cent increase in premiums for this year sounds large, but in …

The Saskatchewan Watershed Authority has delivered another update on the flood outlook for this spring, but it notes that the forecast is based on limited data and should only be used as a general guideline for large areas. I had always suffered under the illusion that precipitation statistics were reliable. The flood watch for this …

You’ve maybe read it in a daily paper or seen it on the television news. The price of beer is going to increase because the price of malting barley is higher. Consumers are being advised to brace for the shock. Oh, the horror of it all. Let’s put this into a bit of perspective. Yes, …

Alberta has just expanded its Cattle Price Insurance Program to include calves. There were already programs for feeder cattle and fed cattle. Now, cow-calf producers in Alberta can buy price insurance from February to May of each year.  The policies expire during the fall calf run from September to December. The program is designed to …

You can’t have cheap food and expensive oil. It just doesn’t work. The price of food is making worldwide headlines. For hundreds of millions of people who earn only a dollar or two a day, increasing prices for staple foods like grains, pulses, rice and cooking oil is a big deal. The ethanol industry, particularly …

Here are some more considerations on durum marketing and the expected price difference between the current crop year and the upcoming crop year. Rolling over No. 1, 2 or 3 durum contracted for this crop year into the new crop year is allowed, but it carries a fee that’s currently $69.75 a tonne. The fee …

The Canadian Wheat Board has something called the new-pool pricing option that allows farmers the choice to deliver wheat and durum in the current crop year and still get the new crop year pool price. It sounds like a way to take advantage of the higher prices expected in the new crop year, particularly for …

A couple of interesting developments in the world of herbicides have crossed my desk in recent days. In the U.S., Dow AgroSciences has announced a new herbicide tolerant trait system. It will be called the Enlist Weed Control System. Crops with the trait will have robust tolerance to a 2,4-D product in addition to glyphosate.  …

Saskatchewan’s realized net farm income has been at an all time high for the past two years. In 2009, it was $1.6 billion and the latest estimate for 2010 is more than $1.7 billion. There are those who point out that adjusted for inflation, the highest net farm income was back in the early 70s …

The Pool Return Outlooks for new crop durum and malting barley are considerably higher than the prices expected for this crop year. The Canadian Wheat Board released its first new crop price projection yesterday. After deducting this year’s freight and handling for Saskatchewan, No. 1 durum with 12.5 per cent protein has a price outlook …