Hursh Comment

Last night, there was a retirement gathering for weed scientist Rick Holm. Rick has had a 40-year career, including 27 years with the University of Saskatchewan’s Crop Development Centre. He’s a great scientist and great guy and he’ll be missed. There have been a number of recent high-profile retirements from the Crop Development Centre. Flax …

What’s happening with the price of farmland? What about cash rental rates? I put those questions recently to Brad Farquhar of Assiniboia Capital Corp. which now owns more than 110,000 acres in Saskatchewan. A number of companies are using investor money to buy land and rent it back to farmers. Assiniboia Capital Corp is the …

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada has come out with new crop acreage and price forecasts for all the significant grains, oilseeds and specialty crops. On some crops, the Ag Canada analysis is calling for big acreage swings. For canola, the prediction is an acreage increase of 10 per cent. While that would be a new record, …

You don’t hear about rabies very often, but cases continue to show up across the country. Each year, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency compiles data on the confirmed cases. For 2010, most of the cases were in Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Ontario had 10 skunks and 29 bats confirmed with rabies. Manitoba had three cats, …

The owners of RJ Game Farm located near Fairlight in southeastern Saskatchewan fear for the health of their 1400 bison and the future of their operation. The fear comes from a neighbouring farm that has moved 300 sheep onto land not far from the bison. Sheep are considered natural hosts for a virus called MCF, …

For many years, Canada and other nations have invested time and energy into the multilateral negotiations of the World Trade Organization. Despite optimistic proclamations by free trade advocates, the WTO has gone nowhere for years. While the WTO slips into obscurity, bilateral trade agreements are providing tangible benefits for Canadian agriculture. The most recent example …

A brand new type of revenue insurance called the Production Cost Solution Program is being offered to grain farmers this spring. If it proves itself, it may decrease the need for Crop Insurance and hail insurance. The company behind the offering is Global Ag Risk Solutions of Moose Jaw. The founders are financial planner Grant …

The Pool Return Outlooks for wheat and durum have seen another significant increase. After deducting average Saskatchewan freight and handling, No. 1 CWRS wheat with 12.5 per cent protein is now expected to have a price of $6.94 a bushel.  This surpasses the $6.56 a bushel that was the final price in 2008-09, but it’s …

The Canadian Grain Commission has been holding User Fee Consultations across the country. Sessions were held this week in Saskatoon and Regina. The commission’s services are supposed to be run on a cost recovery basis, but there has been no increase to most of the fees since 1991. The fee revenue now accounts for only …

The price of Canadian durum looks particularly bad right now as compared to what American farmers are being paid. Elevators in Montana and North Dakota are posting cash bids as high as $10 a bushel for top grade durum. Here in Saskatchewan, the expected price for high protein No. 1 durum is only about $6.50 …

Many analysts say world grain stocks are so low that strong prices are likely for the next two, three or even five years. If world demand doesn’t get side-swiped by another severe economic downturn, the years ahead could be a great time to be a farmer. However, not all the consequences will be positive. If …

The precipitation maps published by Agriculture Canada are widely used, but here’s a case that makes you wonder about the accuracy. Since the end of October, the maps show that Regina has had normal to a bit below normal precipitation. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s National Agroclimate Information Service is also cited as the source for …