Hursh Comment

The Europeans are certainly skilled at inventing new trade barriers. Mandatory eco-labeling legislation has been passed in France. By July of next year, environmental information will need to be made available at point of sale for all high volume consumer goods including food products. The first eco-labeling requirement is expected to include only carbon footprint …

Steve Verheul gave a presentation to the annual meeting of the Manitoba Cattle Producers Association in Brandon over the weekend. Verheul is this country’s chief negotiator in the free trade agreement being attempted between Canada and the European Union. Verheul is an impressive guy and he provides convincing arguments for why the deal would be …

The best overall yields in the province this year were in northwest Saskatchewan. The final crop report of the season from the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture gives yield estimates for the six regions of the province. The northwest is higher in all the crops reported for the region. On spring wheat, the average yield in …

Dicamba-based weed control systems are coming. BASF and Monsanto have announced significant progress in launching dicamba systems for soybeans and cotton. Dicamba is the active ingredient in Banvel. The companies say field testing has demonstrated excellent weed control and crop safety on dicamba-tolerant soybeans in U.S. trials. The new formulation of the herbicide is said …

What would it take for grain prices to become unhinged?  I asked that question of a market analyst yesterday. Since I didn’t ask if he was willing to be quoted, the market analyst will remain anonymous, but his answer was interesting. Back in 2008, grain prices increased dramatically. Spring wheat on the Minneapolis Exchange briefly …

Calf prices were significantly stronger last week. The Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture publishes a Cattle Market Update based on the Canfax Market Outlook and Summary. Prices last week were up in all the weight classes, with most ranges up $3 to $6 per hundredweight. It’s unusual to see such a significant increase from one week …

As harvest season gradually switches to meeting season, it’s amazing to hear the stories of cropping successes and failures from this very unusual growing season. A lot of producers were pleasantly surprised by how well their canola did. While there are instances where canola has been badly downgraded by frost, in most cases the quality …

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 …